Twisted Prophecy
by Sohei Fox
Summary: A little bloody, a little sad, strange romance and an epic battle. Believe me, don't pass this one up. Enjoy the confusing flashbacks in the introduction!
1. Introduction Chapter

Pointless Copyright Notice:

I'm not even going to list it here.  By the time all is said and done, several dozen companies could sue me if I tried to make a cent from this.  Good thing I'm not, eh?

                -------Twisted Prophecy, Prologue-------

"What does not kill me make me stronger"

                                 - Friedrich Nietzche

                His body lurched up suddenly, pressure in his lungs choking the life out of him.  His eyes snapped open to find he was captured in a glass tube.   He beat against it a moment, pulling against the restraints that limited his motions.  'Calm down there man' a voice entered his head, 'You're in a bacta tank.  That's liquid oxygen.  You don't need to worry about breathing.'  He ceased struggling, finding that not only could the voice be correct, but the effort he exerted was causing black spots to swim about in his vision, making him dizzy.  'You're... you're psychic?' he projected outwards.  'Just about everyone is here.  Seems you are, too.' came the voice in his head, 'But we'll talk about that later.  Tell me, can you remember your name?'

_                A flash of memories.  A woman by his side.. her warmth, ker kindness.  Moments of anger, teasing.  The joy of pleasure with her, as only a man and his wife can feel.  The angst of childbirth in primitive surroundings, the triumph at holding his baby boy for the first time.  The pain, searing and burning hotly in his heart... of it's end._

'Gone... all...'  he thought.  'Pardon?' came the other's voice. 'I asked your name.'

                _Names... their name... his name.  Gone.  All gone.  He remembered the first time he came to her bed, expecting fully to be yelled at, to be slapped, kicked, cursed at, anything.  He remembered shaking with fear on that night, not so much in fear of what she would do after discovering what he desired, but in fear of what was to be if she did not reject him.  He remembered her eyes, waited for the denials to begin again... but they did not.  Her mouth formed eight words he would treasure so long as he lived.  "I'm sorry.  I've loved you for so long."  And he would never hear her speak of that love again.  Why had the Kami allowed him to live when all he loved were ripped away from him?  There could be no purpose for his existence.  Save for one.  His eyes opened again._

                'Cabal.  I am all of what we were.' he managed, focusing his thoughts in anger.  'The people in your village said you were called "Ranma".  Do you remember that?' the other's voice probed gently.

                _A house in the Nerima district of Tokyo.  His father taking him off of a long life on the road.  The first day there... and her.  Her smile, so beautiful, as if there was nothing in the world could ever break that smile down.  Then her frown, when she found out what he really was.  Then there were others, so many others.  Of all the others, only one had any effect, but he left, with his intended, and the other was left behind, again.  The battles, the bizzare transformation.  Curses, Kendo sticks, panda bears.  Yes, he remembered._

                'Ranma is dead.' he thought neutrally.  'Ah yes well Cabal, my name is Joshua Taylor.'  He pulled his eyes open.  Through a green haze, he could see the form of his rescuer.  Yes, he remembered Joshua vaguely.  'Why?' he asked Joshua.  'I couldn't let you die like that.  I thought you might want to settle the score.  Better like this than as a revenant.' Joshua responded.  

                _He remembered Akane, playing with Kouma, taking him through the best katas he could do.  Kouma was shaping up to be so much like his old man.  Probably better than his old man.  Though he did not age anymore than a few years for whatever reason, and was certainly not getting "old", family life was making him slow.  Ranma had become the village's protector, by proxy of being the only warrior to ever come to that simple agricultural community.  But as time wore on, the attacks upon the village became less and less, and Ranma found himself spending more time in the fields with the other men.  Tricks to coax crops out of the wasteland became of more importance than how to focus his Chi in battle.  The ability to find water where there seemingly was none was more useful than 30 foot leaps to rooftops.  His father's words came back to him, spoken in love and encouragement once, now sounding mocking and cold.  "A true martial artist allows nothing to distract him.  Nothing will ever be more important than the Art."_

                'Yes.' he projected.  thought was coming more clearly and rapidly now, 'You're right.  I do.  I was too lazy.. I could not....'  Joshua stopped him, 'That won't happen again.  You were severely overmatched.  Even if you were in your absolute prime, you stood no chance.'

                _Ranma was busy tilling up land, getting it ready for this year's Ewbikiberry crop.  The elders approached him, he did not pay much attention.  They told him it was time to defend the village again.  Ranma did not even stop to warm up.  He finished tilling the row, then walked to the edge of town, confident that his enemy would fall before him easily.  That was when he saw the situation.  The raiding party itself was nothing unusual.  A large group of assorted humanoids, ranging from lizardlike to dwarfish man, many atop the local six legged beast of burden.  Brigands, in this world, they had a certain amount of honor.  When encountering a village they wished to loot, the would offer the village a chance to present their best warrior in it's defense.  If the champion won, the raiders would usually take dinner with the village, then leave.  If the raider's champion won... the town and it's resources were at the mercy of the raiders.  Ranma had never any trouble defeating the "champions" of these ragtag groups in physical combat.  _

                _The preliminaries were already parlayed, the stage was already set.  Ranma did not have to deal with the diplomacy, he was only the defender of the village.  To show up, fight, bask in victory, then go back to his wife and child.  Ranma limbered up a bit and squinted against the setting sun to make out his opponent.  The opponent stepped into view._

                'He was... you are right.  But I can't.. ever.' he cast his eyes down at the thought of his own limitation.  Joshua turned fully towards him and held up a clipboard.  He could not read what it said.  'Actually, Cabal, you can.  At the behest of General Kurosawa, I'm authorized to give you enhancements that will more than equal the odds.'  '....enhancements?'

                _The opponent was 9 feet tall.  He was much like a mythical centaur, albeit not in a beautiful fairy tale way.  He advanced on Ranma, and snarled.  Ranma shot a look back to his wife.  She, for the first time since they had come to this strange land, looked afraid.  Seeing her husband's glance, she pasted on a smile of confidence, but that it was forced was easy to see.  Her eyes were afraid for him.  The centaur advanced upon him.  Ranma leapt out of striking range, flipped onto his hands, and launched up from there back towards the centaur.  He timed the landing, extending his foot to strike a devestating flying kick into the beast's head.  He struck dead on target, between the eyes.  It was like kicking a tank.  Ranma felt pain shoot up his leg in white hot arcs; there was no give from the beast's neck to absorb the pressure.  The centaur reached up before Ranma could even bounce off his target, and clasped one large hand around his calf.  He was then slammed forcefully to the ground.  It was over that quick.  Several bones were broken, and he could tell those bones included his neck.  He lay there on the ground helpless to stop what came next._

                'What sort of enhancements do you mean?' he asked.  'Well,' Joshua replied, 'We're going to enhance your muscles with myomers created... let's just say you're going to get a LOT stronger.  It's biotech, so you'll have to keep working out and such if you wish to maintain the strength.  We're putting subdermal armor in, also.'  'Subdermal what?' he asked again.  Having not spent much time in school, that phrase meant nothing to him.  'Means we're grafting armor into your skin.  It will grow and act like normal skin, and it's well.. armor.  It'll make you tougher against firearms and will pretty much make bladed weapons useless against you.  I can't fix your lungs yet though, I don't happen to have any new lungs on hand.  We'll have to set you up with noseplugs or a filtration mask.  You can't breathe normal air for long.  The trace toxins which most people are immune to will slowly clog up your weakened alvioli.  Want me to fix up your face?'

                _He could see it in detail from where he lay.  The brigands, knowing they had won, began their plunder of his village.  Akane stood amidst all of it, holding Kouma and staring at her husband.  Tears formed slowly in her eyes, but she did not know anything beyond the first aid she was taught in lifeguard class.  And that was 18 years ago.  The centaur stalked over to Ranma, grinning sadistically.  He clawed across Ranma's face, four slashes running from his temple across to the opposit cheek.  Then the centaur belched a cloud of fume at Ranma, and though he tried not to inhale, he had to eventually breathe.  It burned, and he was having trouble getting enough air, even after the cloud was gone.  Ranma closed his eyes, ready to die, but the centaur slapped him into wakefullness and turned him on his side so he could fully see Akane.  Having done so, he took a bow from one of the other brigands, and drew back the arrow, pointing at her.  "Beg for your life!" he bellowed.  Akane bit her lower lip hard enough to draw blood, but did nothing else to show her fear.  "I will never do that.  You can take me and do what you wish, but for whatever you hold holy, don't harm my child!"  The centaur began to laugh grandiosely, then cut short and let the arrow fly.  It struck Akane between the eyes with such force that half of the length burst out the back of her skull, loose chunks of brain matter under the mushroom-like tip.  She clutched Kouma protectively to her before sinking to her knees, silent forever.  Ranma cried out as best he could at this, though it was little more than the keening wail of a dying animal._

                'No.... I' his head was spinning at all of this, and he knew he would go back into blissful oblivion again for a while, 'It is... my shame... do not fix my face.  I will wear these scars as a reminder of...'

                _The centaur walked to Akane, and tried to wrench the child from her arms.  In her death, she clutched the baby tightly to her bosom, who was strangely quiet.  The centaur could not easily remove the child from mother's arms, so he instead ripped the arm off.  Kouma fell to the ground, crying a bit but not wailing in fear.  Ranma could not help but be proud of his boy, despite all that had happened.  The centaur picked the child up and sniffed him.  "Is this your boy, weakling?" he asked Ranma.  Ranma could respond in no way but affix the centaur with a look of steely hatred.  "Yes, he is your boy.  He smells like you.  Arrogant stink of weak humans.  How brave of him, not to be puling like the beast he is."  The centaur sniffed the child once more, then held him between his hands... and tore the child into two pieces.  Ranma felt burning rage at this, which then subsided into utter despair when he realized there was nothing he could do about it, and he himself was dying.  The top half of Kouma was thrown by Ranma, and the last thing Ranma heard struck him deeply, pushing him into something beyond rage.  He heard his child cry one last time, a cry of mortal pain that would burn inside him for the rest of his days._

                He finally blacked out, and dreamed.  Mercifully, he dreamed of better times.  He dreamed of Ukyou''s okonomiyaki house, scamming free food off of her, talking to her about his problems, and being understood by her.  Her unconditional love, fuled with 10 years of rage and loss behind it.  He remembered defeating the "Gambling King".  He remembered her assistance delivered so many times.  Whenever Akane was in trouble, Ukyou was there to help Ranma.  Blowing up his wedding.. he wasn't ready to marry at the time anyway.  He remembered her way of talking, though not entirely unladylike, tending to be vulgar.  He remembered her voice, clear and full of confidence, with an edge of sultriness just below the surface.  Not slutty, like Shampoo tended towards, but always with a little hint of things that could be.  He could almost hear her saying "What the hell does that mean, you jackass?"

                "Well," Joshua said, "It means his revenge is in another dimension.  I don't think you want to pay for that. "  "Well," the female voice replied, "Why can't you just let him run for the money a while?"  "Not a bad idea."

                He felt that he was no longer in the liquid.  He was lying down, with a tube going down his throat.  He opened his eyes.  Could that.....?  "Uk-?" he managed, then thought better of this.  "I think I'm... gonna... puke..."  He looked at the female standing there.  It certainly looked like Ukyou.  Bit taller, same proportions, and some kind of marking on her left cheek.  "You know Joshua, when I look at him on the table, he really does look like-"  Joshua chuckled and completed her phrase, "Your old Ran-chan?  Hey killer, why don't you tell her your name, eh?"  Joshua was looking at him now.  "My name.... is Cabal... pleasure... meeting.. you." he managed, dizzy and barely understanding what people were saying.  Joshua raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing.  The woman smiled at him.  Same dazzling smile, full of infinite empathy and compassion.  "My name is Brigadier General Tina Lynn Kurosawa.  I have other names, too, depending on who you ask, but Tina is the one I go by.  Feeling well enough to chat a bit?"  He raised up slightly, and found that the bed raised with him, offering him support in his more upright position.  It helped clear his head a bit.  

                "Yes, I'm allright.  What happened to me?" he asked.  Tina smiled at him, "Well sugar, according to Joshua here, he was going through a rift that tore open, and found you lying there.  You were pretty torn up and nearly dead."  He nodded slowly, beginning to understand.  Alternate reality.  This wasn't Ukyou at all.  "Anyways," Tina said, "Joshua brought you here, and asked me what to do with you.  I'll admit it's a bit silly, but rather than let you die I decided to pay to fix you up.  You look so much like I would assume a man I once knew would look if he was a few years older."  "What was his name?" he asked.  "Ranma. Ranma Saotome.  Real pigheaded fucker at times, but I loved him more than life itself.  Boy pissed me off, oh I'll tell you-" Joshua interrupted her again, "Oh yes, she'll tell you allright.  Get her even slightly drunk, and that "Ranma" guy is all she ever talks about."  Well then.  Maybe this was her.  Tina shot Joshua a cold glare, then softened and giggled.  "Yeah, I do tend to do that, don't I?  It's been 80 years since I last saw him.  I'm just disgustingly obsessed."  Joshua looked piercingly at the man on the bed, under the oxygen tent.  "No Tina, you're just hopelessly lost in love is all.  Not many people can claim to have loved like that.  I hope that some people can learn to be more like you, and not deny themselves."  The man ignored this, and addressed Tina.  "80 years?  How could it have been that long?"  Tina laughed lightly and said "Long, LONG story sugar.  Remind me to tell you sometime.  Suffice it to say I ain't human, never was.  Didn't know what I was when I was young, still don't.  I bleed green though, and don't seem to get older."  The man tilted his head, a bit confused, "And you never loved anyone else since then?"  Tina got a bit of a starry look in her eyes, "If you ever met this man, you'd understand why I didn't.  He was so-"  Joshua cut her off again, "Studly, manly, kind, gentle, free of prejudice, noble, et fucking cetera.  Shut up already, psycho."  Tina giggled again at Joshua.

                "You got him registered in the 'runners database yet?" she asked.  "I'm trying, but there's already someone named "Cabal" in this city.  It's not taking a second one without having his real name also."  The man turned to Joshua, "Spell it with a "K" then.  What's this runny thing you're talking about?"  Tina sat down on the edge of Kabal's bed and smiled sunnily at him.  "Well, you see, Joshie-poo there got a reading on the place where you came from.  We can get you back there, but it'll take lots of money.  Dimensional hops cost so much your implants look like a burger and fries next to a new house."  She looked at her watch.  "Well, " she said with a sigh, "I'm gonna have to run out now.  I have a press conference to handle.  We had a few Marines get overzealous in the pursuit of poontang.  Can you take him through the rest of this Joshua?  "Sure." Joshua replied.  Kabal spoke up, "Wait Tina... how can I repay you for all this?"  Tina shook her head, "Don't worry about it sugar, it's on the house."  With that, she bolted out the door.  Kabal shook his head, still slightly fazed.  She used to use the same phrase when he'd leech Okonomiyaki off of her.    "So you're going to make a mercenary out of me?"  Kabal asked.  Joshua smiled, "That's about the size of it.  In a coupla days I'll line up your first job."  Kabal shook his head, "No way man.  I won't be a hired killer."  

                "From what Tina's told me about you over time, " he looked at the door she just left through, "I knew you wouldn't.  Don't worry.  I'll get package runs and bodyguard duty.  You'll probably have to kill people at some point though."  Kabal nodded, "It's allright, I'm just not an assassin."  "By the way man..." Joshua began.  He mulled over it, then decided to go ahead and continue.  "That was a REAL shitty thing you did with Tina there."  Kabal hardened his expression there, "It's no business of yours."  Joshua cracked his neck with a quick jerk to the left.  "Tina's my friend, my oldest and greatest.  I owe her my life many times over.  Seems like you owe her one, too."  Kabal looked away, "Ranma is dead.  It's that simple.  I am not the man she seems to want."  Joshua slapped down his clipboard, "What the hell ever man.  That much faith doesn't get misplaced.  I know her, she's way too smart to delude herself like that.  If you ever hurt her in any way man, I swear I will frag you myself.  Got me?"  Kabal's muscles tensed and his pride roared, but he was too weak to fight this man at the moment.  "Ranma is dead."  he repeated, more softly.  Joshua softened as well.  "I understand your pain man.  I've been there myself.  If you thought of yourself that way, it would open a whole new world of shit for you.  Maybe it's best you do wear your mask until you get it all worked out."  Kabal nodded, "You're... right, mostly.  I... I feel numb right now.  I have to kill that centaur.  I've gotta.. he took my family.

                Joshua reached over his desk and picked up a metal mask, looking somewhat skeletal.  "Speaking of masks... this was my costume to a ball last week."  He showed it to Kabal, "Shall I set this up with the accoutrements you'll need to breathe?  It's much less obvious than a nose-filter."  Kabal nodded to Joshua, "Yes, do that."  Joshua nodded back.  "And my friend.... once you have your revenge, don't just let yourself die.  It hurts a lot, but there may be other things to live for, in time."

                Kabal chuckled a bit lightheartedly, "Are you trying to set me up with your friend?"  Joshua grinned, "She loves you.  But put that aside right now, I don't think love is what you need just right now."  Kabal's thoughts turned inwards again.  He remembered the cry of his child, the touch of his wife.  There was no purpose in life anymore but to avenge his family.  And himself.

                But he had to admit, it was nice to see his Uc-chan again.

                -------End Introduction-------

Please, by all means, let me know what you think!  This is, as stated in the summary, a rewrite of an old story that I lost.  I was mulling about the idea of trotting it out again, as I never published the old one.  If you all would like me to write more... then by all means please e-mail me at soheifox@hotmail.com .  Comments and criticism are VERY welcome!


	2. Chapter 2: A dream come true?

Apologies in advance: I was going to do a much larger bit at the beginning here with the Shadowrun... but any author worth his salt can tell when a bit is going nowhere, and has the decency to wrap it up, fast.  
  
This sense of decency carried over to my striking out an entire part of the story. It's tasteless, and lies on the cutting room floor where it belongs.  
  
"But you were history with the  
  
Slamming of the door  
  
And I made myself so strong  
  
Again somehow  
  
And I never wasted any of my time  
  
On you since then"  
  
- 'It's all coming Back to Me Now', Celine Dion  
  
Twisted Prophecy, Chapter 2  
  
Michael Cordilla adjusted his cufflinks uncomfortably and looked at his wristwatch. He was promised some help about now. Michael, like many thousands of other people who work, was not happy with his job and was wishing to make a change of career. Unlike those other thousands, he was going to walk out with a prototype worth millions of Nuyen to bring to his new company. And the company would know, quickly, about it; likely before he even got out the door. He turned the simstim chip over and over in his hands. He was supposed to be testing it, and that was only for 30 minute checkouts. It was at the 20 minute mark now. His intercom buzzed. "Yes?" he spoke to it. "Mr. Cordilla, there is a man here to see you. Says Mr. Johnson sent him?" Michael ran his arm across his forehead. It was beginning. "Ok," he said, "Send him in."  
  
His door open and in walked the runner. The runner wore a black leather trenchcoat, a Chinese looking red shirt, pants to match the jacket... and a mask. A shiny-chrome almost skeletal looking gas mask. The runner spoke, "My name is Kabal, I believe Mr. Johnson set us up a meeting?" Michael nodded, then looked Kabal over severely, "Aren't you more than just a bit obvious?" Kabal shrugged and said, "Not like we have much chance of getting outta here quietly once we get off this floor anyway. Besides, your receptionist didn't seem to mind. She thought I was cute." Michael looked Kabal over carefully, "I don't see any firearms, are you packing?" he asked. Kabal shook his head. "Shouldn't you have a gun? We have ARMED security here." Kabal shook his head again. "Well, you're the professional. And Johnson tells me you're one of the best." Kabal just walked out the door.  
  
Michael gathered up the prototype hastily, nearly dropping it, and hurried after Kabal. Kabal had stopped in the front office, and was sitting on the receptionist's desk. She was braiding his hair for him. Michael, not quite sure if he was maintaining his grip on reality, stayed where he was and waited while the runner and his receptionist made flirty small talk. The braid was completed, snapped off with a rubber band, and Kabal turned to face the receptionist. "So yeah, I'll be sure to give you a call...." he made a waving motion at her with his hand, "Maria" she offered helpfully. Kabal raised his hand to stroke her cheek, "A perfect name for such an exotic beauty." He leaned forward on the desk, moving towards her for an embrace. One hand of his slipped to the release on her chair, letting the back fall to lay her back. Then his other hand raised, and knife-hand struck her in the temple. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she reclined in the chair, out cold. Kabal rolled off the desk and stood straight. Michael couldn't help but laugh, "Well, she won't be hitting the alarm. Never liked the bitch anyway." Kabal stared at him, gaze intense even under the mask. Michael's smile faltered, "Umm... let's go, eh?"  
  
There were no hitches whatsoever. Kabal and Michael made their way easily down as far as the front security desk, where Kabal simply kicked the security guard, hard enough to completely shatter his skull, then kicked the front door open. Michael, dumbfounded at the oddity of the entire situation, transfered the nuyen to Kabal's credstick and left.  
  
Kabal trudged tiredly up the stairs to his apartment. Four runs in one night. It was tiring, true, but well paying. In just the first two jobs, he had made 6 months rent on his apartment. It was a lucrative business. Other Shadowrunners complained about the danger of it all; Kabal himself did not. He found that his Kenpo skills were completely unmatched by anybody this dingy future had to offer up yet. What bothered him was his surroundings. This city, this "New Seattle" was the saddest place he had ever seen. The poverty was apalling, and the crime rate was downright sickening. Everywhere he looked, every step he took, he was surrounded by the worst urban squalor he could imagine. When he was a child he had read about some of the ghetto cities in poorer parts of America, but could not imagine how horrible it would really be. Though he was saving money to avenge his wife with, he found that almost all of what he made was being handed out on a daily basis to the poorest of the town.  
  
As he was slipping the key into the lock, he detected a sound... little girl whimpering. He turned and looked about for the source of it. Looking around the landing in front of his door, he spotted the situation. There were four metahumans, three orcs and a dwarf, standing over the face- down body of a girl who could be 13 at most. Kabal's eyes narrowed to angry slits as the dwarf hiked up the back of her skirt and began to unbuckle his pants. "Hey assholes! Get the hell away from her." he yelled. The orc in back looked up at him, "Shut up drek-head. Halloween was a few months ago, so you take your happy ass inside, take off your little mask, and go fuck yourself in privacy." Kabal fought back the rage from taking him over.. a martial artist's worst enemy was a lack of self control, and leapt down in front of that orc. The orc reached into his jacket and took out a rather large, brutal looking pistol. Kabal judged the distance and realized he wouldn't likely cover it in time to disarm the thug. Instead, he held his hands together and quickly gathered strength. The girl in question took this opportunity to fix her skirt, give Kabal a look of adoring thanks, then run off.  
  
"Mouko-" he thought better of that. Instead he thought of his wife; his child, and the death always around him in this town. The hopelessness he saw daily in the eyes of the children who lived here.  
  
"Shi-shi Hokoudan!" A blast of energy, fueled by anger, sadness, and despair shot forth from Kabal's hands. The crimson light struck the orc full on, and his entire upper body was torn to pieces. An instant later, blood hit the pavement; sound of so much bathwater thrown out a second story window. He turned on the remaining metahumans. "What the hell are you, chummer?" asked the dwarf as he fumbled his belt back together. Kabal smiled under the mask and remembered an old, cheesy line as he advanced on the threesome. "Tell me my friend, have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?" One of the orcs pulled his vibroknife and said, "You a loon, chummer." Kabal threw his trenchcoat down and rolled his arms a bit. "You're all going to die now. Let's dance!" As he said that, the orc with the vibroblade was hurled to the alley wall, stapled there by a black-bladed Colonial Marines knife. The orc reached to pull it out, when another object, small and silver, embedded itself in his neck. Kabal took this opportunity to rush the dwarf, tackling him with a wrestling spear, then flipping the dwarf over onto the ground behind him. Kabal whirled quickly and drove his fist downwards, caving in his skull and sending a fountain of brain matter spraying off to the side. He turned to the final orc, but the orc was already dead on the ground, slash marks in sets of three over his guts and throat.  
  
Tina Kurosawa was in the alley with him. Extending from between the knuckles on each hand were three blades, and there was a trickle of green around each of them. The blades were surrounded with a green field of energy which lit the entire alley enough for him to see her face in detail. They retracted back between her knuckles and she smiled at him. "Well Kabal, fancy meeting YOU again! Howareya?" "Fine," Kabal mumbled, and walked over to the first orc Tina had downed. He pulled the object out of the orc's throat, and his suspicions were confirmed. One of her throwing spatulas was the instrument of death. Then he took the knife out of the orc's shoulder and turned it over in his hands a few times. "Nice knife." he said and handed it back. "Yeah," she said, "custom issue. Carbonite blade." "It must be nice to be a General." he said. Tina cleaned off the blade and put it back in it's ankle sheath, "It has it's benefits yes, but it's mostly just paperwork. Since Johansen died I'm now the highest ranked military officer alive. I don't like it much." "Yeah, well, have a nice life." Kabal said and began back up the stairs.  
  
"What's wrong?" Tina asked. Kabal stopped moving, "Nothing that you don't already know about. I'm fine." Tina was havng none of that, "Look sugar, you can't bullshit a bullshitter. Something else is wrong." Kabal sighed... it was almost too eerie, like their teen years; she could always tell when something was wrong with him. "I really didn't want to see you again," he began, "I mean, I don't want to sound like an ingrate, thanks for the implants and all, but I really must be getting on with what I need to do." Tina crouched a bit, performed a moonsault, and landed in front of him, facing him. She poked his shoulder, "Look, ass," she punctuated each word with a poke to him, "there's something wrong and you really need someone to talk to about it. I can tell." Kabal raised his arms in protest, "I just want to be left the hell alone, OK?!?" Tina took both of his hands. (Why did I just do that?) she thought. Then spoke, "Look, fine, you don't have to talk at all. You wait here, I'll go fetch some groceries and I'll make you dinner." He would have been able to refuse her, except his stomach chose exactly that moment to remind him that fast food wasn't very nutritious. It grumbled at him. Sensing victory, Tina smiled. "I know just the perfect thing. It's my specialty. You ever had a dish called Okonomiyaki?"  
  
Kabal's stomach grumbled again, and in a tide of memory, his resolve quickly weakened. She still cooked okonomiyaki? Of course she did. "Can't... say that I have. Allright, I accept. You can cook me dinner." Tina released his hands and found herself supressing a giggle. "Ok, Kabal, I'll be back in 5 minutes!" she said. Kabal smiled, "I'll leave the door open." Tina dashed off, stopped at the corner, and waved, then dashed again.  
  
She stopped halfway to the asian goods store. She realized that she was acting like a giddy teenager. She had not acted such (except literally ACTING, in a movie role) in a long, long time. A feeling was awakened that she had not felt in a long time, and she had trouble chasing it down. It was happiness. She was excited to be cooking him dinner; it felt so.... right. She chided herself for her silliness. She was a warrior, not a boy- crazy schoolgirl. She was 96 years old, and a hardened soldier. Many saw her as an idol, a hero. All that good stuff. (So start ACTING it, girl!) she told herself. She willed herself to walk at a normal pace to the store. This did nothing to quell the feeling of overwhelming happiness though.  
  
Kabal sat in his apartment, deep in thought for an indeterminate time. Then it occured to him that the place was a horrible mess. He opened his eyes and looked about. Dishes dirty from a few month's time, and whatever was in his fridge had likely mutated into something sentient by now. He wanted to clean the place up, he was embarassed. He'd never assumed on having company. He stood to do so, when Tina popped in the doorway. "Hey I..." she looked at her surroundings, "you know, you go take a shower, and I'll take care of this, eh?" Kabal started to offer his help, but Tina pointed firmly away from the kitchenette, "Go!" she said. Kabal sighed and did as he was told.  
  
When the shower was over, he walked out, bare from the waist up, and sat at the kitchen counter. He placed his mask on the counter and set about drying his hair. Tina smiled at him as she finished off the last of the dishes. Kabal took the towel off his head and let it rest on the back of the chair he was sitting on, to be pleasently surprised by the condition of the apartment. In that 15 minute shower, Tina had cleaned tha apartment almost back to new. He pushed his hair back from his shoulders and favored Tina with a smile in return for hers. She looked at his face, and took in his features. Those eyes.. that face.. despite the scars, Kabal really DID look like her Ran-chan. She was still admiring it when Kabal put his mask back on.  
  
Kabal braided his hair quickly and looked over at his stove (now immaculately clean). Tina was warming up a large grill attachment that was spread across all his burners. He saw all the familiar tools being used in just the way he remembered them. Then he took note of the fact that Tina was speaking  
  
"-means 'as you like it'. What happens is I make the base here, and we can put almost anything in it. You have any particular preferences?" Kabal responded almost on autopilot "Two deluxe." Tina paused a moment, then said "I'm assuming by that you want a little of everything in there?" "Yes", Kabal said, "go heavy on the" -beef sukiyaki, he and Tina both thought at the same time- "teriyaki chicken, if you would?" "Surely," Tina said, "so, while I'm working here, why don't you tell me what's wrong?" Kabal sighed loud and long. "It's this place... it gets to me."  
  
"How do ya mean, sugar?" Tina asked, flipping his oknomiyaki effortlessly, cooking the sides to a near crisp, while leaving the interior contents soft and chewy. "Everywhere I go, it's just so... wrong. I mean everyone is so... poor here. I mean, like Renraku makes enough money to pay a schmo like me 8 thousand nuyen to deliver someone's damn business memos, and the people at large can't even scrape 25 together to buy a damn turkey for their kids on Christmas." Tina nodded at him, "I know whatcha mean. It ain't right. Ya try and help, but there's only so much you can do." Kabal stood up and walked to the fridge. "You want a beer?" he asked. Tina pointed at the livingroom table, "I brought a few bottles of wine. Crack one open." Kabal looked over at them, then said, "I don't have a corkscrew, did you bring one?"  
  
"Corkscrew? You know what one of those are? Heh, nobody's used one of them in 30 years, Kabal. Just tilt the bottle at a 45 degree angle, hold it there, and it'll start pouring after a second or so." Kabal did as Tina instructed him, and was somewhat surprised when what Tina said was true. Though the place he lived was not all that different from Nerima as he remembered it, sometimes new technology snuck up and surprised him. Culture lag. 6 months and it was still all so unusual to him. He poured two large tumblers full of wine and brought them back with him to the counter.  
  
"Jeez Kabal-sama, are you trying to get me drunk or what?" Tina laughed. Kabal looked at the plastic glasses and said, "What?" Tina laughed again, "You've never had wine before, have you?" Kabal placed one of the glasses down and scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. Still maintaining a mirthful smile, Tina flipped his okonomiyaki onto his plate, and one for her. She looked at Kabal standing there like a buffoon, and couldn't help herself. She drew a big goofy face with small beady eyes on his okonomiyaki and signed it "Tina", with a heart dotting the I. She easily threw both plates onto the table, then threw silverware to line up perfectly next to the plates. "Time to eat, I guess!" Kabal said as he popped down into his chair. Then his eyes fell upon the okonomiyaki at his place. The silly face, it brought memories. Even the signature, though now it was a different name. He suddenly began to feel as if he was just fooling himself. Yes, his wife was dead. So was his child. He would never forget that, never forgive. But did it mean he had to die as well?  
  
Tina sat primly across from him, and lifted up her glass. "A toast!" she said. Kabal raised his glass and toasted for her, "To old times, old friends, and love lost." "Kampai!" Tina responded, "and chug!" They both slammed their tumblers of wine. Tina savored the light warmth as it spread through her body, whereas Kabal smacked his chest twice with a closed fist, then let out a thunderous belch. "Sexy." Tina quipped, "Tell me about your wife and I'll tell you about Ranma." Kabal began to wince, then realized that she wasn't making him feel uncomfortable at all. She genuinely seemed to care. "Well, she was a sweet woman. The first thing I remember of meeting her, and the last thing I always will, is her smile." he refilled his glass, Tina did the same, then he continued, "When she smiled, it was one of those smiles, one that tells you everything is gonna be allright, no matter what your problems may be...."  
  
A half hour late, quite pleasantly squiffed, he was still talking about her, and Tina was all attentive. They had since gotten through the second bottle of wine. "And she had a TEMPER on her like you wouldn't believe. I tell you, when we were younger, I couldn't do ANYTHING right in her eyes. Even saved that girl's life Amaterasu knows how many times, and still she had nothin but bad words for me." Tina laughed, "Highschool sweethearts eh?" Kabal nodded, "Yeah, those were the days. Me an alla my friends, fighting against demons, gods, and what all else!"  
  
Tina smiled again, wistfully, "Sounds like me and my friends. We really tore up the roads when I was a kid. There was a kid... with peaches, what the heck was his name?" "Tomo?" Kabal offered, helpfully, then immediately sized up the human body's capabilities of kicking itself in the ass. "Yeah!" Tina said, "that was the little shit's name! He was... hey, how'd you know that?" She looked at him intensely. "Oh," Kabal said, waving his hand dismissively, "The legend of Tomo and the peach. I didn't really expect you to have actually met _him_." "Oh, " she said, "you know, you really do remind me of the man I loved." Tina said. Kabal held his drink up for another refill, "Tell me about him?" "Well, he did his hair like yours, but then, almost everyone who practices Kenpo does, it seems. He was... so sweet. Nobody else saw that in him." Kabal was confused, he thought 'sweet' was not a correct term to describe him in his olden days.  
  
"I mean, he was rough around the edges, but, ya see, he grew up on the road with his father. Two men alone on the road don't teach each other much in the way of manners. But that was WHY he was so sweet. The guy would never lie to you. He hated it more than anything. He was wild, free, and didn't give a shit what anyone thought of him.... except his friends. He tried so hard, he tried never to hurt anyone. Even Ryouga, who was always tryin to kill him. He was truly a man among men."  
  
Kabal finished his glass, and slightly dizzy, began on another one. "So what ever became of him?" Tina looked down into her glass and swirled it about. "Well, he was in an arranged marriage, y'see. And he married her. I saw him again about 20 years after that; he was actually my Marine drill instructor. He was happy in his wedding, so I loved him from afar. Then well... he died. That's making a really long story short, but hey. We'd be here all night."  
  
"Do you miss him?" Kabal asked. Tina looked up, and he could see there were tears forming in her eyes, "Yes. More than anything." "And you never loved anyone else?" he asked. Tina rubbed at her eyes, "Oh I tried, but I couldn't. There were.. partners here and there, and I have a few kids, all full grown now, but nobody could ever measure up to him. He was kind, gentle, noble.... he never wanted to hurt anyone, and his dopey smile just melted my heart. The way he looked at the world, he was just a big kid. Quick to hurt, and just as quick to love. No matter what, he never lost that wide-eyed innocence." Kabal could not resolve that with what he actually thought of himself. "No," he said, "I'm sure he wasn't like that. He couldn't be all that, I mean.. he left you. He hurt you." Tina stared daggers at him, "You did not know the man. He tried everything he could to not hurt anyone. I lost, I gotta live with that, the sheer numbers stacked the odds against me, but it was not HIS fault that I hurt, it's mine for loving someone who was already taken. He didn't want to hurt me or any of the others who loved him" Kabal shook his hands in frustration, "How can any man be so damn perfect? You're exaggerating. I mean, way I see it, he was a womanizer for juggling all of you like that." Tina glared harshly at him, "Again. You did NOT know the man. Now, you keep this up and I'm gonna have to say goodnight."  
  
"But.. I'm not.." he caught himself, "I don't want you to go. I haven't... talked to anyone since I got here. I miss.... people. I'm...." Tina tilted her head in pity, "...lonely?" she asked. He nodded, unable to meet her eyes. "OK then," she said, "whenever my Ran-chan got lonely, there was a song he always used to listen to. Want me to sing it for you?" Kabal nodded; he realized it was true, he was desperately lonely, and this was a dark and evil world to be alone in. Anything to make her stay a bit longer. "You... can sing too?" he asked. Tina giggled again. "Yes, silly. You have one of my recordings!" she pointed to the entertainment center on the rack. Kabal looked where she was pointing, a music disk by Ariana Saotome was open, with the data in the player. "That's.." he said, to be cut off by her, "Me. It's a stage name, you jackass!" Kabal laughed, "Oh bullshit!" Tina looked offended, "No, really! Go look at the jacket!" He retrieved the case.. and sure enough, there was a picture of Tina, scar on the left cheek and all, with a microphone headset on. "Well, I'l be dipped in horeshit! You're a star!"  
  
Unknown by either of them, they had an audience. This audience turned to the rest of her friends and said, "Now is probably not the best time. They're a little... busy right now."  
  
"Yeah!" Tina said, rising to her feet and swaying a bit, "now why don't you just sit right there and enjoy a private performance of Ran- chan's favorite song... 'I look up when I walk'." Kabal tried not to visibly react to that. Yes, indeed, Sukiyaki was his favorite song. Tina cleared her throat, cued his entertainment center to play without lyrics, sang a few notes to find her key, then began: (English translation added here, too)  
  
Ue o muite arukoo I look up when I walk  
  
Namida ga kobore nai yoo ni So the tears won't fall  
  
Omoidasu haru no hi Remembering those happy spring days  
  
Hitoribotchi no yoru But tonight I'm all alone  
  
Ue o muite arukoo I look up when I walk  
  
Nijinda hoshi o kazoete Counting the stars with tearful eyes  
  
Omoidasu natsu no hi Remembering those happy summer days  
  
Hitoribotchi no yoru But tonight I'm all alone  
  
Shiawase wa kumo no ue ni Happiness lies beyond the clouds  
  
Shiawase wa sora no ue ni Happiness lies above the sky  
  
Ue o muite arukoo I look up when I walk  
  
Namida ga kobore nai yoo ni So the tears won't fall  
  
Nakinagara aruku Though my heart is filled with sorrow  
  
Hitoribotchi no yoru For tonight I'm all alone  
  
Omoidasu aki no hi Remembering those happy autumn days  
  
Hitoribotchi no yoru But tonight I'm all alone  
  
Kanashimi wa hoshi no kage ni Sadness hides in the shadow of the stars  
  
Kanashimi wa tsuki no kage ni Sadness lurks in the shadow of the moon  
  
Ue o muite arukoo I look up when I walk  
  
Namida ga kobore nai yoo ni So the tears won't fall  
  
Nakinagara aruku Though my heart is filled with sorrow  
  
Hitoribotchi no yoru For tonight I'm all alone  
  
Kabal had his head cast at a downward angle. There was a bit of moisture that had trickled down onto his bare chest. "Oh my..." Tina said, "Are you... crying?" Kabal quickly shook his head, and faced away, removing his mask and fiddling with it. "It's.. I got some stuff in my eye." Tina smiled at it all, almost crying herself. (Why? How is this guy getting me so damned emotional?) He turned back to her, mask still off, and made eye contact with her. He had been crying, it was obvious. And it was just as obvious that he was trying to make it look like he hadn't been. His eyes were so.....  
  
"Will you sing it for me, again?" he asked her. She took his hand and raised him to his feet. "Dance with me and I will." Kabal hesitated and tried to sit back down, "I don't...." Tina placed her finger on his lips. "Just hold me. Move if you want to." He did so, and she pawed at his entertainment center, setting it to go again, at a slowed tempo. This time she sang the words directly into his ear, slow and sultry, filled with the bittersweet pain of her own love. Halfway through the song she opened her eyes and saw a tiny birthmark behind the ear she was singing into. She almost lost it and went hysterical when she connected with what that meant. Instead, after a brief pause, she picked up the song again, singing with all her heart had in it. The tears flowed from her eyes as well..... because now she knew. 


	3. Chapter 3: Old friends return

"Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with."  
  
-Mark Twain  
  
Twisted Prophecy - Chapter 3  
  
The group outside crowded closer to the female mage's projections of the events inside the apartment. A female voice said, "Is that really them?" A male voice responded, "Sure looks like the boy. And if that's not Tina, then she's really done her homework." A second male voice added his two cents, "Let's not forget, this is not the Tina we knew, nor is that Ranma the same one we knew." Shanna, the aforementioned magic-user, stated, with ultimate class and distinction, "I think they're going to fuck." A third female voice: "Aiya! I think we have fun with this, no?" "Sure. You all know what to do, count of three," came yet another male voice. "Provided you don't run the wrong way, anyway; we all know what to do." countered another female voice. "This is a really bad idea. Not that any of you listen to me anyway." said the second male voice.  
  
Tina lowered her head down onto Kabal's shoulder after she was finished singing, and embraced him tightly. She felt warm with happiness and relief, and alive. He was back, again. Her love, her life, her reason for everything. "Ran-chan..." she sighed happily. She felt Kabal tense up, start to push her away.. then his muscles relaxed. He began to shake slightly, countless thoughts racing through his head in rapid succession. 'She knows who I am? She isn't mad at me for lying to her. I'm not though, he died. But I... I am. Kami above her hair smells wonderful! Why is my heart beating so damn fast? Could I be? No... Akane! Oh Akane, I'm sorry I can't help it. Akane is dead, I'll never see her again. My son, my very blood, before my very eyes.. gone, dead' He looked down at the woman embracing him. Friend, confidant, always there to make him happy even if it made her sad. 'But Uk-chan. She's alive. She waited for me! Why did she have to come into my life again? There is no reason for me save vengeance! Damn her for doing this to me! She's so warm. Hey I'm having trouble breathing, I need to get my mask back soon here. I can't! How could she do this to me? Do what to me? Love me? That's all. Oh why do I try so hard to feel like a scoundrel! Why...?' He encircled his arms about her haltingly, all the more shaky for it.  
  
Tina raised her head off of his shoulder and looked into his eyes. Kabal noted that her eyes were not the brown he expected, but were instead an almost neon green. But they were beautiful all the same. Deep, soulful.. all the old anachronisms he had laughed about from love poetry took meaning true here. He found himself truly getting lost in them, they showed so much pain, so much fear, and yet so much nobility and passion. He could read volumes of her life in the brief moments he looked into her eyes. Above all though, was the look of absolute adoration, the tears welling up at the corners of them. A snatch of song lept unbidden into his mind, something by ABC, 'If you judge a book by it's cover, then you would judge the look by the lover'. He could not be such a fool as that. Her look told him all about her. He could not say no to such love again, not here. Not in this place of such precious little love. His trembling ceased as he felt his roaring heart finally defeat his sorrow, and he pulled this lover closer to him, already knowing he would do things he had declared would never happen again.  
  
Tina, at the same moment, was trying to keep herself from crying aloud, joyous and triumphant. The message was driven deep into her mind by the triphammer beat of her heart, "He feels it! He feels it too! He's gonna _KISS_ you, girl!" She felt her whole life had been a prelude to this time, the time when her Ran-chan would finally return her love. Years, endless years of heartache, countless nights of wracking sobs at the hope she held against hope that this would one day come. It was all coming to a crescendo now, and she knew she would never be this happy again. No... she would be this happy for the rest of her life. HE was here. He moved towards her, and she parted her lips, closed her eyes, to savor the moment she had anticipated for over 80 years.  
  
As their lips were near to touch... the door burst open noisily and several intruders stormed into the small apartment.  
  
"Ranma no Baka!" yelled the first, a woman with long blue hair wearing a uniform of some Police Department. "Wo ai ni! I so happy see you! You take me out on date, no?" screeched a large-breasted female with extremely long purple-pink hair whom glomped hard onto Kabal. "You have some explaining to do, Boy!" threatened a somewhat overweight older man wearing a white Karate Gi, glasses and a white bandana over his head. "Ranma! This is unforgiveable! Now you die!" bellowed a Japanese young man of sturdy build and small fanged teeth. "Away rabble! He's mine." claimed in French-accented Japanese a blonde woman whom had demonic wings and small horns. The final figure, shaded by a trenchcoat and fedora.. with furry pointed ears sticking out of the top of it.. lit up a cigarette and grunted. "This is crass." he growled.  
  
Moments passed in silence, the pair still locked in their embrace taking in the scene. Kabal's eyes rested on the woman in the uniform, "What... the... hell?" Tina followed Kabal's gaze, then dropped her embrace and pushed past the group, walking out the door quickly. The trenchcoat-clad figure hurried after her.  
  
Kabal sagged down to the ground, feeling extremely dizzy, and unsure if he was hallucinating. His eyes stayed upon Akane; he could not believe this. She walked to him and began to speak, but he did not hear her. He finally passed out from lack of oxygen.  
  
Tina sat upon the cracked pavement of the sidewalk out front of the building. She was hugging her knees to her chest. The one in the trenchcoat sat down casually beside her and held a lit cigarette out to her. She stared at it a moment, then took it and inhaled it deeply. "So," the other said, "that was pretty mean, wasn't it Sister?" Tina continued looked over at him, "And who the hell are you anyway?" She looked at his features.. he was a mutant animal of some variety, a badger or a wolverine. "It's genetically impossible for me to be your sister. I'm not even human, I'm something else. I bleed-" The other held up his hand for silence. "You bleed green. You are an Invid." "Invid?" she seized upon the other's jacket, "You know what I am? Tell me more! Tell me your name, also." "My name is Rock." he said, "I am a mutant wolverine. I was a creation of one Dr. Richard Light. Same man who gave you your cybernetics. So I'm your brother." Tina released his jacket, "What about me? What am I?"  
  
Rock dragged from his own cigarette, and flicked it into the street. "Well, first let me explain what the Invid were. There was a planet named Optera. On this planet, there was a race of creatures.. sluglike almost, bipedal though. They lived happily in a hive mentality, harvesting their Flower of Life and defeating their natural predators through sheer numbers and decent battle tactics. Their hive queen, whom would later be called 'The Regis', was a sentient being. Simple, true, but sentient. One day, along came another species, called, ridiculously enough, The Masters. The Masters found Optera and were just going to colonize it. First, they sent one of their best scientists, one named Zor, to study the indigenous races. The better to wipe them out with. Zor found that the 'Flower of Life' was an energy source, and even more. When used to power mecha, the pilot could easily become one with the machine, reactions inside a machine were nearly as fast as one's own body. The pilots could even feel pain if the device powered thusly was damaged. Real easy to fix things when the pilot can feel an 'itch' that turns out to be a broken fuel line."  
  
Rock slung his backpack off of his shoulder and opened it. A hand extended, holding a six-pack of Killian's Irish Red. "Thanks Mike." Rock said as he closed the bag. Tina raised an eyebrow at him. "The Beastie Boys live in my Bag of Holding." Rock supplied helpfully. "Ahh..." Tina said, deciding to ignore that, "And what became of the Invid? I am no sluglike being." Rock stabbed his claw into the top of a bottle, pried it open, and handed it to her.  
  
"Well, the queen of the Invid hive spoke a lot with Zor, and found herself more emulating his form. She began to feel love for the scientist. Time came when they worked together hard on the Flower of Life, refining it into a form more usable by The Masters, called Protoculture. The Regis and Zor perfected this process. When Zor reported this to his superiors, they were greatly pleased. They allowed Zor to move all of his research to a battle cruiser of his own design in orbit around the planet. When this was completed... The Masters began defoliating Optera after taking much Flower of Life seed. However, the Invid soon retaliated, in a form nobody expected. The Invid Regis transmuted matter into mecha for her people. She advanced many of them to be more apt for combat. Taller, leaner, with more human musculature, they were almost the match of The Masters. In horror of the whole situation, Zor, before his own death as a traitor to his people, sent his research starship on a trip across the galaxy, spreading the seed of the Flower wherever it could. Eventually this ship ended up on Earth. You still with me here?" Rock asked. "Yes," Tina said, "Go On. What became of the Invid?"  
  
"Well, the Regis' anger was so much that she could no longer contain it. She split into two halves.. a destructive, arrogant male half called The Regent, and a more thoughtful, less violent female half.. The Regis. The male half went across the galaxy, scouring it where possible, destroying and plundering everything they could find. The Invid would descend upon a planet like a plague of locusts, and strip it bare, leaving alive only a small force of laborers to work what twisted version of the Flower of Life could be harvested on whatever planet. The Regis instead, pursued the pure form of the flower to the only place it would grow, the place where Zor's battle fortress had stopped. The Earth." Rock looked over to Tina to see if she needed clarification, but she was just listening, eyes bright and full of curiosity... he was pleased at this. She was not totally jaded. There was hope for them within her.  
  
"Mankind found this ship.. it crashed in a place called Macross Island in the late 1990's. It's appearance answered once and for all the questions about other life in the universe. Life elsewhere existed, and from what they could glean from the foreign computer systems, that life would come, to ravage them, because of The Flower. This ended war entirely, as the whole planet had to unite against the coming threat. The humans of the time managed to operate the Protoculture Matrix fairly well, they had designed transforming mecha called 'Valkyries' which were Jet, called the Fighter configuration, Man-shaped robot, called the Battloid configuration, and a state between them called the Guardian, or Gerwalk, depending on which designers you asked. One day, the Super Dimensional Fortress, as they were calling it, awoke on it's own and took a potshot at some approaching starships. Those starships got closer to the earth, and unleashed their forces. These were the Zentraedi, the warrior race of The Masters. To make a 60-year story short, eventually the humans defeated the Zentraedi, The Masters, The regent's Invid, and convinced the Regis' Invid to leave them alone. The Regis could be talked into such because she was a thinking and evolving being. She had even shaped some of her children to look like Humans, albeit for subterfuge." Tina lowered her eyes and nodded. "I am one of those, aren't I?" Rock shook his head, "No, you are much more than one of those. But we'll get to that in a minute. Through all this battle and ill-will, the Flower had become tainted on Earth, and all of it began to literally disappear. It was mankind's only power source left after the devestation of three seperate wars. The flower dying spelled death for both Human and Invid."  
  
"That's where you come in. Before the Regis faded away completely, you were created. You were to go back in time and prepare the humans. Convince them to keep battle off of their planet, and if at all possible, not battle at all. And if all else failed... to love their enemies and pity them while destroying them, rather than hating them. And you could also work as a go-between for the Invid and Humans, for you would have lived as one of them and understood that their capacity to love was infinite, that these humans are more like Zor than like his Masters." Tina smiled, "That's quite a noble cause." Rock opened another beer and said, "Yep. I'm sure it sounds wonderful to you. It's how you are now, you never hate your enemies, and try your best to help them all."  
  
"Was I made this way?" she asked, "Am I not who I am because of how I was raised? The things I have experienced?" Rock shook his head, "Nothing is predestined by your make. All I can say is that you are more.. genetically disposed towards loving then others may be. But your pure heart is your own doing." Tina pondered that, "You really think I have a pure heart?" she asked. "Well, for our sake I hope you do. Next you're going to ask me how I know all this, right?" Rock questioned. Tina nodded. "Well, I am sure you are familiar with the concept of alternate dimensions, et cetera." Rock began. "Yes," Tina said, "Kabal is Ranma from an alternate history than my own."  
  
"Correct. Well, Akane, Ryoga, Genma, Shampoo, Shanna and myself all come from an alternate.. but similar.. world such as where you are now." Tina sighed, and Rock put his arm about her shoulders, "And yes, I know some part of you wishes we had not come." Tina shook her head, "Not at all. In fact, it's wonderful to see all of them again. Except you and Shanna, I have never met either of you before." "Then why did you storm out here then, eh Sis?" Rock chuckled. "Well, nobody's perfect. I finally won Ranma... and sure enough, along comes Akane to take him from me." she said. "Do you hate her for it?" Rock asked, a bit of angst noticeable in his voice. Tina shook her head, she did not have to think at all, "Nope. I've never hated her for that. Jealous as all hell, but I cannot hate a woman because of who loves her. Under the violent bitchy-exterior, she's good-hearted." "You sure you feel that way?" Rock asked again. "Yeah, jackass. If she's Akane, then she's good, you know? Why do you keep asking that?" Tina made eye contact with him again as she asked her question. Rock sniffed in her general direction, catching her scent and analyzing it. "I believe you," he said, "your capacity of hate and love are actually of tantamount importance to the galaxy, if things go the way they did before." Tina laughed, "Oh quit bullshitting me!" Rock shrugged, "Tina we had before hated. She lost it, her heart was not pure. We lost because of that.... but don't worry about it. Tell me, you ever hated anyone, anything at all?"  
  
"Yes." Tina said grimly, "Xenomorphs. You know what those are?" Rock nodded, "We got them where I come from, too. You really hate them?" he asked. "They took Ranma... one of him... from my life." Tina said, and paused in thought, "But that's no more their fault than ants killing a butterfly whom was caught in a rainstorm." Rock smiled at her, "So answer my question, d'you really hate them?" Tina shook her head, "You can no more hate a natural predator for preying than you can hate a dog for barking." Rock, too thought deeply on this. He feared that mayhaps.. hmm. A test.. "What d'you propose we do with the Aliens? Give them a continent or two and leave them alone?" Tina shook her head, yet again, then looked at Rock like he had grown a third head, "Heck no! If they are natural predators, than we gotta meet them on their own level. If we can kick them out of _our_ anthill, then more power to us. Survival of the species, and all." she said. Rock smiled, feeling an elusive worm of hope moving about, "Great! I was afraid you'd be the other extreme. Too much of a damn pussy to actually do anything."  
  
"Why are you so goddamned worried about my view on life, anyway?" Tina asked. Rock stood up, "I'm not. I just like to know what the odds are." "Really, is there something gonna happen?" Tina pressed. "If it does, you'll feel it. If it doesn't, then great. Shit, I'd be happier if we had left it all behind us when we were sent here." "But what-" she began. "Don't worry about it. Let's go back inside and see what's going on with dumbass and the bimbos."  
  
Kabal was still on the ground, unconscious, when the pair came back in. Akane was trying to give him CPR, Shampoo looked like she was going to cry, and Shanna was filing her nails. "Rock!" Akane yelped, "Do something!" He made eye contact with Shanna, who gave him her best "These people are helpless morons" look, and then walked over to the counter, picking Kabal's mask up. "Am I", he began, "the only person who noticed that he had the Darth Vader thing going here? Did anybody else pay attention? No? Didn't think so." He placed the mask back on Kabal's face, and threw him from the floor onto his bed, Kabal's loose flailing arm catching the bedroom door on the way in and closing it. Shanna clapped, "That was good. Little sloppy on the follow-through, but good. I give it an 8 for effort."  
  
Tina looked over the group to greet them, each in turn. Ryoga bore several scars on his body, including the telltale burns of a close encounter with an Alien on his right shoulder. His eyes showed anger, as always, but not so much depression anymore. And he carried a Pulse Rifle strapped across his back, in lieu of the leaden umbrella that used to be there. "Great to see you again, Lost Boy." Tina said. Ryoga smiled at her, "As to you, Kurosawa-san. I look forward to great battles at your side." "Or great battles several dozen miles away, eh?" she joked. Ryoga maintained his smile, "It's much easier to find one's way when one is looking outside for direction, rather than within." Akane laughed, "That's his way of saying 'Point me in the right direction and I'm fairly good at maintaining that direction'."  
  
Shampoo had not physically changed much, save that her hair looked as if she spent less time grooming it these days. Her movements, also, were more guarded. Less naievete permeated her entire being. "Xian-Pu. You're looking well." Tina greeted. "Slutty Girl not so bad herself." Shampoo returned. "Ah." Tina said, "It's like that, is it?" Shampoo laughed, high- pitched as ever, "Ya! Slutty Girl too serious. We all friends here." Tina shrugged, "Hell if I know. You people seem to know me and I not know you. You'll pardon the hell out of me if this is all a little discomforting." Shampoo looked over at Akane, a mischevious glint in her eyes, "Some know Slutty Girl better than others, but Shampoo keep her place." "Catty bitch." Akane said. "Flat-chested tomboy." Rock moved between them, "Ok girls. Don't make me sit you both in the corner."  
  
Genma was a bit more solidly built, striated muscle apparent upon his chest rather than the soft layer of flab that could be typically expected. "Saotome-san." Tina spoke respectfully as she bowed low. Genma returned with a lackadaisical military salute. "Do not prostate yourself before me, General Kurosawa." Shanna laughed outright from where she was... floating... "I think you mean 'prostrate', jiji-san." "I say what I mean and mean what I say." Genma said, keeping his cool. "Oh do you?" Tina jibed playfully, "Then how come I'm not Ukyou Saotome?" Genma maintained his overall demeanour of absolute security in the location of his towel. "I don't have the slightest clue what you're talking about. Oh look! I think Akane wants to talk to you!" he said, placing the daughter of his old friend squarely in front of him.  
  
She had not seemeingly aged much, and Akane was much as the Akane of her youth. Her striking blue hair was long again, and Tina noticed for the second time that Akane wore a Police uniform. "What is up with this?" Tina asked. Akane brushed the shoulders of her uniform clear of dust, straightened it out, and saluted Tina. "2nd Lieutenant Akane Tendo, United Nations Spacy Homeworld Peacekeeping Force, reporting for duty Ma'am!" Akane clicked her heels and stood straight at attention, holding her salute. Tina saluted back, "At ease, Loot'nent Tendo. I'm off duty and not in uniform." Akane relaxed her stance and pulled out a comb, attending to her long locks. Tina's gaze moved away towards Shanna, when Akane spoke up again, "Tina-chan?" "Yes?" Tina asked. "About what Shampoo had said..." Akane began. Tina nodded, prodding her along verbally, "I was wondering about that, yes." "It is true that I had developed... relations, so to speak, with the... other... you... that we met. I'll carry none of that baggage into our friendship." Tina found herself somewhat disgusted, and choking back laughter, "Oi! Won't Kabal get a kick outta that! I just can't wrap my brain around that happening." Akane turned a bit red, "You've gotta understand, the circumstances behind it all.. it's a long story, and I'd as soon you none of you let on to Ran.. Kabal that anything of the sort ever occurred." "Yes. Sexless tomboy taken to it's extreme, illogical conclusion." Tina giggled. "Again," Akane said, "you'd have to understand the circumstances. I'm straight." Rock butted in, "Sister, shut up before you make yourself look worse, eh?" Akane looked over at him. "Always making a mountain out of a molehill." he continued, "You'll have to excuse her. She still hasn't resolved that whole situation with herself, yet. And it's been years since the Tina we knew died. She's just feeling guilty."  
  
Tina finally took the time to examine Shanna. Shanna stood 5 feet 7 inches, she was blonde-haired with blue eyes. She was also of obvious demonic origin, for she had large, obvious demon wings, small horns on her forehead, and a pointed tail.. which appeared only for a moment, and seemingly at Shanna's whim. "A pleasure to meet you." Tina extended her hand to Shanna. Shanna shook it, and nodded back at her. "Unlike the rest of you fools, I'm not going to assume that she's the same one we knew. I look forward to getting to know you. However, right now I feel you should go in there with him." Tina began to speak again, when Shanna opened the door to Kabal's bedroom and shoved her in.  
  
"And get into some sleeping clothes. You're gonna be there awhile. He's not gonna wake up for a few hours!" came her voice from outside. Tina looked about Kabal's room. Horrible mess. There was a pizza on the end- table which looked so old the sauce had turned brown. Kabal himself was sprawled at an akward angle on the bed, one arm hanging off the side, snoring loudly... and with sleep-drool filtering down through his mask. Tina couldn't help giggling at how cute he looked passed out there. She reigned it in, and instead began to search his drawers for something to wear.. Shanna seemed correct, he looked like he'd be out for a long time. Top drawer... underwear and socks. He only wore boxers. Tina thought of the old wive's tale that a man who only wears boxers does that because he's well-hung. She smirked again at that and continued searching. A little album of pictures. She flipped through that, and found many pictures of Akane, pictures of Akane and Ranma, and in many of the pictures towards the end, one or the other was holding a beautiful little baby boy. There was also a picture of Ranma after having defeated Kirin. Another taken at Christmas, most of the old crew standing about him, his arm around Akane. A picture of Ryoga and Akane arguing. Suon Tendo and Genma Saotome (in his panda form) playing Go. Three pictures of Shampoo, whom was attempting to expose herself in one of them. A picture of Shampoo and Mousse, taken a few years after it seemed, surrounded by children. Tatewake Kuno, holding Happosai off with his bokken. Kodachi Kuno, her yearbook picture from St. Hebereke. That was the last picture for that album, and another, smaller one, lay underneath.  
  
It was bound in soft leather, and had the Japanese symbol for heaven upon it. Tina opened it to be presented with a picture of herself (well, Ukyou, anyway) giving Ranma a hug on Christmas Eve. Her in a prom dress, looking lovely with curled hair. Her in her boy's school uniform, kicking ass at American Football. Her cooking at the Uk-chan's Okonomiyaki. Several more shots of same. One of her in a bathing suit, rather skimpy.. to put it modestly. One of her serving Akane a ramen dish, with a smile on her face but obvious sorrow in her eyes. Next there was an old, yellowed newspaper clipping, about a local young businesswoman committing suicide. Next a police photo, herself pale, covered in a red-stained blanket. Another angle showed her eyes, still open, still full of the same sorrow. Yet another angle, the upper half of her body. There were slashes and cuts all about the neck, and a small ceremonial dagger with dried blood upon it lay a bit away from her hand. The next shot showed her gut, slashed open with the entrails upon the ground, also dried with passage of time. She looked to Kabal, wondering why he had kept these grotesque pictures. The next picture was at the funeral home, her corpse restored to something of it's former beauty. Upon the final page, mounted with a Shinto prayer strip, one of her throwing spatulas, and a hair tie, was a picture of her in a red and blue flower pattern kimono. It was easily the most beautiful picture in the collection, and it looked like it was carefully preserved. She closed the book and held it against her chest. No wonder he had avoided her so. She could read a Ranma like a book, and she knew what he was afraid of. He was afraid that if it began again... that she would kill herself. That he would have to go through this same pain all again. She looked over again at Kabal pityingly. Such hardship. Nobody should have to go through a close friend killing herself, and then several years later his own family murdered.  
  
She placed the book back in the drawer, careful to cover it up how it was, and searched further, quickly finding soemthing suitable. One of his old Kung-Fu shirts. She stripped herself of her clothing, and several throwing spatulas, combat knife, two pistols and a shock-prod, then slipped upon his shirt. She checked in the mirror for decency, and realized that with the slightest raising of her arms, hair could be seen. Being now the same height as him thanks to cybernetics, the shirt didn't go as far down on her body as they used to. Her cheeks colored green with embarassment, and she began to go for a pair of boxers. Then, she stopped herself. What was she worried about? Of all the people in this world, he was allowed to see anything without reserve or shame. She lay upon the bed near him, and rolled him up, placing his head upon her bosom. Mentally counting off the years he had experienced, she wondered why he was not older, did not have grey hair by now. She'd have to ask him about that later. She admired him a moment, taking in every detail of his still-bare chest. Every muscle cut and toned, trim yet powerful. A true martial artist's body, and far better even than what it was when he was younger. Upon his chest hung a crystal, which was initially clear upon her entry, but was now taking a neon greenish colour, and throbbing gently. It took her some time to notice that it was doing so in time to her own heartbeat. Another thing to ask about later. She set to stroking his hair, and waited for him to awaken. She softly sang songs of love to pass the time.  
  
The midnight moon hung low in the sky, it was well past midnight. The people outside had not bothered them in any way, and Tina was sitll singing. In the middle of the third verse of a rather bawdy Scottish love song, Kabal finally stirred. Tina kissed him on top of his head, "Welcome back to the world of the living, jackass." she said. Kabal raised up his hand, and placed it up around the leg that Tina had stretched across his chest. "Is this really happening Uk-chan?" Tina placed her hands about ihs neck, and stroked his chest fondly. "Yes, Ran-chan, it is." "Those people... was that a dream or did it really happen." Tina fiddled with the crystal about Kabal's chest. "Yes. That was all real, too." Kabal moved a bit, to make eye contact with her. "They're all here? Shampoo, Ryoga, my father.... and" he said. "Yes, and Akane. She is here too." She felt him tense, ready to move. Tina sighed and took her hands off of his chest, gritted her teeth and said, "Go ahead. Go see Akane. As always I'll be here if you need someone to talk to." Kabal grabbed her leg as she started to get that out of his way, too. "Don't think I'm so hasty to run out on you, Tina." Much against her will, her heart started pounding again. "Whaddaya mean by that, jackass? Akane's waiting for you." Kabal caressed Tina's leg affectionately.  
  
"She's not my wife, Tina. My wife died. On that day, I thought I had, too. To an extent, I did. But when I awakened that second time, and saw you there.. who am I kidding, I was doubly sure. But even then, you were just being so... you. It was hard not to feel anything whatsoever. That put a chink in my armor. I built it back up quick as I could.. I was not ready to feel anything other than pain. So I went on with my task. But the thought of you still plagued me. The coupla times I saw you on the street, I walked away as quickly as I could, afraid that I might... start to feel again. I was afraid that you would come to me, see right through my defenses, and break me down into what was really wrong."  
  
"You never could lie to me for very long, Ran-chan."  
  
"Yes, and that was why I really wanted you to stay the hell away from me. I felt as if... what I had left was revenge. And if you broke down my anger, I was afraid I was going to fall apart. I was afraid there would be nothing but... me.. and I could not face myself. But you never left my thoughts, Tina, you never did. You were at the same time a bane to my hatred, but also a link back to life. I think I at least subconsciously knew that 'Ariana Saotome' was you, and I bought that damn datadisc. I mean, I don't even like romantic music!" 'That's bullshit and you know it.' Tina thought, but did not vocalize it. "Then you came to me last ngiht, and you wouldn't go the hell away. And I didn't have the heart to push you so hard... because despite it all, I got so damned lonely here. And I let you here.. lo and behold, without even trying, or probably even knowing you were doing it, you stripped through layer after layer of my protections, holding them up to the light and showing me what bullshit they really were."  
  
"Again, that's the way it's always been with us, Ran-chan."  
  
"Yes, the way it always was, and the way I feared it would be again. But then I realized it... there was nothing bad about that. You were there, forcing me to be honest with myself yet again, and last night you actually gave me my pride back. You showed faith in me that I did not myself feel I deserved. What to others sounds like so much bullshit about me.. and I feel arrogant saying it even now, it's true about me. I don't know what it is, but you see people for what they really are... if they will allow themselves to be. You made me realize that I was once this man you loved, and there is nothing stopping me from beign this man again." He pounded his chest to accentuate the next point, "Because right here, that's who I really am. You just made me stop lying to myself. Yes, I failed protecting my wife but damnit that doesn't make me any less of a man! I was not cowardly, weak or stupid. At least, not any stupider than I usually am. I still got some stuff to work out about that all.. I know it's gonna take a long time before I feel good about myself totally again, but you opened that door. You gave me my pride back, Tina."  
  
"Nothin' I haven't done a hundred times for ya before, Ran-chan."  
  
"A hundred, a thousand, a million times, Uk-chan. You've never ever stopped giving and giving, shooting down my lies, and showing me that I'm not as bad as I thought I was. From the days when my father used to..." He stopped. Now that he thought about it, he could not actually _remember_ any of his youth, beyond talking to Uk-chan. He remembered something was bad, and he felt bad for it, but he never told Ukyou what it was. He just accepted Ukyou's unconditional friendship and support. "From when Akane would hit me, yell at me, argue with me. You were there to listen, to make me feel good about myself. And what used to be unconditional friendship turned into the purest love I had ever known. Don't think I couldn't see it back then." Tina's eyes widened. She had actually thought that Ranma just didn't realize it. "You never thought of anything except for what was best for me. You backed away when you realized that I really was ready to marry Akane. And you waited till you thought I had left town for good, so that way I wouldn't know you had..." He trailed off. "Killed myself?" Tina supplied. "How did you know that?" he asked her. "I saw the book you kept of me. I can't believe it. That must have hurt you so much, Ran- chan. And I'm sorry you had to know about it." Kabal shook his head, "What the hell are you apologizing for? It wasn't you who did it. The... other... you did it." Tina pulled his head down to her breast again, "It could have been, Ran-chan. It could have been. I remember drinking 3 whole bottles of Sake the night you left. I remember the feelings, it hurt so bad. At least you were still.. around, even if I could not have you. But this time you were gone for good. I remember holding that very same knife to my stomach, ready to cut my life upon the ground, and slash my throat to end it quickly. You were everything for me. But, instead, some last fray of hope and sanity held out." "What did you do then?" he asked. "Simple. I went to America, bullied some homosexual into marrying me for citizenship, then joined the Marine Corps. Beyond that... well, it's not important right now."  
  
"No," Kabal said, "It's not. And last night you were still YOU. After all this time. Heck, not 15 minutes ago, you just tried to send me to Akane! You've never cared about yourself, your own happiness." "As long as-" Kabal placed his hand over her mouth and finished for her, "Yes, as long as I am happy, that's all that matters to you. I'm not blind Tina. I'm not stupid. I never was. But you terrified me then, I felt I was unworthy of such strong love. I mean, I was still a little boy! Even now, you frighten me somewhat. But you did something else for me, Tina, besides my pride... you taught me that I can... I'm not.. I can love again." He lifted off his mask and looked her full in the eyes. "I don't know what's gonna happen from here out, Tina, but last night you got what you always wished. My heart. And I'm not in such a big hurry to run away from your love like I always am."  
  
She let herself go slack in his arms, unable to stop the tears of joy. And he said "I love you" over and over as he entered her..... 


	4. Chapter 4: Chivalry is dead! kinda

"The spring is come,  
  
softly blows the wind,  
  
The peaches and apricots  
  
are in full bloom.  
  
The dews are thick  
  
in the autumnal nights  
  
The leaves fall  
  
from the paulownia tree"  
  
- Daito Kokushi  
  
Twisted Prophecy, Chapter 4  
  
Tina awoke in the morning,to find the above quote written in beautiful Kanji up the pillow where Kabal laid. Below it, in English scribble, was this simple note:  
  
Tina-chan,  
  
There is a lot in my mind. Turmoil, unrest, fear and despair. But also upon my heart is love. Do not think unkindly upon me, Uk-chan, I'm not running away from any of this, and least of all would I ever run from you. I must spend time getting myself right with myself. I am going to Japan, to commune once more with the land of my upbringing. I am sure over the years you have felt it's pull yourself. I go there seeking to put my soul at rest, that I may come back and deal with all of this with a clean mind and open heart. Spoke as I did last night, I don't know what is coming next. I get the feeling that it's going to be hard on me. Above all, I feel it will be hard on you. What may come, never lose faith in me, and I will one day prove to be the man you claim I am. Something tells me that you may have great reason to doubt me in the future. I don't know how I know this but I do. That's part of the reason I am going to Japan. I feel many of the answers for me are there. Whether it is foolishness to ask more of you than you have already given, or it is foolish to think that I even need ask... please, be patient with me. You've touched me like nobody else has in the past, and like nobody ever will again.  
  
Love always,  
  
Kabal Saotome - "Ran-chan" (signed in hirigana scribble)  
  
Shaking the sleep instantly out of her eyes, she bolted outside, to find there Rock and Shanna. Rock saluted her lazily, and Shanna merely smiled. "Where did he go?" Tina asked. "Japan," Shanna answered, "I brought him halfway there myself. He insisted on swimming and walking the rest of the way." "Swimming?" Tina asked, "To Japan? Is he even aware that it's almost impossible to get spy planes over Japan, much less get people into it?" Shanna tilted her head in a slight nod. "And do you believe there is anything he cannot do, once he sets his mind to it?" "Well, he's still a fucking jackass! I coulda helped him around there." "Now Sister," Rock chided, "You know better. He wants to go alone." Tina sat on the chair she had sat in last night, when talking to Kabal. "Well... I don't wanna risk losing him again." she said. Shanna and Rock looked at each other, then back to Tina. "You know, Sister, it's likely the boy is going to-" Shanna silenced him with a mild cantrip, cast as easily as wiggling her fingers. He continued moving his mouth, apparently swearing, and shot Shanna the bird.  
  
"We're going to see a woman, a demonic fortuneteller, whom I incidentally think is my mother, though she never came right out and said it. She predicts the future fairly accurately with cards." Shanna said. Tina searched her memory, then said "A Tarot card reader? Oh please!" Shanna shook her head, "Nah, her cards are... different. I think she's my mother because she often goes way out of her way to help me whenever I ask.. within the bounds of her enslavement, that is, to help me. That and the fact that whenever her fortunes include me, she always ends up pulling the "Daughter" card to represent me. I've invited her here, and her essence will arrive shortly." "Essence?" Tina asked. "You'll see."  
  
Almost before Shanna finished speaking, sure enough, there was a vaguely humanoid shape standing in the midst of them, and a very solid deck of cards was in it's hand. A melodious, angelic, and vaguely French- sounding voice filled the room: "I have not much time, little Delereaux. Ask your question that I may draw the cards quickly." "Rose, what I seek is simple. I want a reading on the future of you-know-who. This version of him." "Ahh!" came the voice, "You wish to know what is to become of your darling Ranma. Draw about and I will pull the cards."  
  
At the top appeared a card, it showed a noble knight in gleaming armor defending a princess from something. The card's text read "The Crystal Knight". Shanna quirked an eyebrow. "Is that him?" "Yes." came the voice. Rock, now able to speak again... but still shooting the bird at Shanna, whispered to Tina, "Every time I've seen this done before, the card to represent Ranma has been invariably "the Cad" and it showed a man surrounded by women." Tina nodded and kept silent. The second card appeared, below the first. It showed shades of many women, warrior types to smaller ones. "The Lovers" came the voice. "I was afraid of that," Rock mumbled, switching middle fingers for Shanna as his arm was getting tired. "What's that mean?" Tina asked. "Means he's gonna have a whole assload of women he's gonna womanize with." The voice came again, "Oh hush Rock. The "Harem" card is what was pulled before. This is subtly different." Rock flipped off the voice as well, then gave up on the concept in general and lit up a bowl, instead. Another card was drawn, off to the side and below. "The First lover is: "The Saviour". That would be you, Tina." Time passed before the voice spoke again, "As Shanna and Rock would expect, I am unable to read anything else from your future.  
  
Another card appeared next to Tina's. It showed a a pair of hands folded in prayer, with another, obviously female, set, holding them. "The second lover: The Priestess." The next card showed several angelic types in an orgy. "Perversion. Shown here it indicates she will free him sexually." "Why the angels? What's that mean?" Tina asked. Shanna shushed her, "It's not a good idea to ask her to explain why the cards mean what they mean. She just usually says that they do, and that's that." The voice chimed into this, "Actually, I will clarify a bit here. If that had shown a bunch of demonic figures engaged in an orgy, the perversion would be a bad thing. It would mean sexual depravity that led to following mental depravity, generally even soul-damaging depravity." "How can sexual depravity be 'good' anyway?" Tina asked, "I mean, I can relate greatly, but I wanna hear what you have to say." The voice audibly sighed, "Why, then, are you already asking me a question to which you know the answer? A repressed sexuality can eventually lead to self hatred, or potentially worse things. Much, though not anywhere near a majority of, rape occurs because of too much sexual repression, that eventually comes to a boiling point. Take prison rape as an example. If the men who are that sexually repressed would simply find a way to vent it, the culmination of their rebellion would not be so violent." Shanna stared at Tina, then nudged Rock, "I've never heard her say anything like that before. I didn't think she was deep enough to reason things like that out." Rock grinned broadly, attempted to stop himself from taking the bait, but found it too irresistable, "Yes, ditz. Further proof that she could not possibly be your mother." The voice raised in volume a bit, "Would you two shut up? I don't really have much time." "Sorry Mom." Rock said.  
  
The next card appeared, of the morning sun shining in from the east over a torii gate. "This, in the case of him, represents purity of soul and ease of forgiveness. The Priestess will absolve him of his past and turn him onto a new day." Another card appeared, that of a woman in a kimono standing aside a man in wedding kimono and a woman in western wedding dress. "The Beloved Concubine. Whether literally or figuratively, this woman will become his consort, and his wife will accept her. That's all I have for this one, aside from saying that I cannot stress how important her place in all of this is."  
  
Another card came, this of a woman in a straightjacket, surrounded by riches. ""The Insane Thief" is the next lover. Though I should point out that this list is in no special chronological order, anymore." Below that, a card showing a man bathing an obviously dying woman. "Pity. This one will obtain love through pity, though the love will be true." The final showed a woman, dried blood upon her, hand extended towards a glowing cup. Another image on the same card shows the man from the previous card holding this cup. "She has a great quest, and she will fall short of her goal. He will acheive this goal for her. After that..." The same Pity card appeared again. "I think she's doomed to be consumed by her insanity, with few shining moments of clarity thereafter." Tina stirred uncomfortably. Rock squeezed her shoulder and said, "I know Sis. I feel bad for her already."  
  
Tina sighed and stood up. "You know, can you guys just give me the rundown when this is all over? This is not exactly making me happy. She's tellin me I just won after all this time and now I gotta give him up again." Rock shrugged. "Sallright by me." Shanna stood and gave Tina a hug, "I don't really think it's going to be bad as all of that." The voice in the room spoke again, "Tina, I cannot read your future, but I can easily read your past. You are in his heart now, and you always will be. And are you not the main proponent in this day and age of the Repopulation movement?" Tina looked a bit taken aback, then embarassed, then smiled broadly. "Yeah. Yeah, fine damn you." her smile, if anything, was broader. "I guess I can stand to practice what I preach. Millions of other women have learned to deal with it." Rock perked his ears towards Tina in interest. "Repopulation?" he asked. "Yeah," Tina said, "Between the goblinization, the Xenos, the old wars with the Russo-Asian states, and the Hunter-Killers before that, there's not many men left." Rock laughed. Tina continued, "In fact, now their numbers are so low that even the military is now mostly women. Human men are encouraged to take multiple wives, and they're even protected as a precious commodity. A human male is actually given government subsidies based on how many legitimate children he can sire." Shanna elbowed Rock, and he spoke up the obvious, "So the men are the bitches now?" Tina rolled her eyes. "To an extent, yes. They are protected and jealously hoarded over, but since that means a man gets to fuck a different wife every day of the week, we don't get much in the way of 'Equal Rights' complaints." "Here and I was going to call him a moron for wanting to travel in his female form." Rock growled, trying not to laugh again, "Apparently he was afraid of being raped by roving bands of women!" Tina smiled mirthfully, then said, "Don't laugh. It does happen. There's black markets where slave men are sold."  
  
Over the course of the next several weeks, Kabal did indeed make... her... way through to Japan. The rest of the old friends spent time getting re-acquainted, and Ryoga tried not to look _too_ eager about the prospect of "spreading his seed".  
  
Kabal was back in male form before arriving in Japan, thanks to prevailing warm currents of an unknown variety.. and that sort of bugged him since the ocean he knew did not exhibit that behavior. He had entered aboard a ship of the Japanese Self Defense force, being taken there after an intensive interrogation. Making matters worse, the entire interrogation had to be carried out in English, since Japanese had changed so much Kabal barely understood it's current form. He had them convinced that he was of Japanese descent (which was true, but there was no easy way to explain why he spoke 'old' Japanese) and that he was coming to his homeland to look over his family household, the Tendo dojo. And that he had found, and found indeed it was deeded to any Tendo or Saotome that would come to claim it... as a proctor. The Tendo dojo was a museum now. Kabal ducked and ran from that, instead heading to the Azabu Juuban district of Tokyo, seeing what he could drum up as a good old vagabond martial artist. As a male in a female-majority society.. though still male dominated, he got a lot of offers for essentially prostituting himself to women, but did not take those up.  
  
He walked the streets and corridors of the Juuban district, admiring the beauty that surrounded him. What a contrast it was to America; there was nature abounding here.. trees lined the streets, birds chirped in the sky, and poverty was almost nonexistant. It was certainly like the Tokyo of his youth. Downside being that people in this district spoke almost exclusively the new Japanese, and he had never any idea what the hell people were saying to him. And he was getting hungry, his Nuyen had run out long ago and there seemed no equal to 'Shadowrunning' here. He couldn't even trade wisdom and martial arts skills for money, because people couldn't understand what the hell he was saying, in fact many thought he was some sort of superhero or something because of his mask. He had, in fact, stopped one bank robbery and two muggings, but was endlessly frustrated because though the victims showed him great gratitude, and every time gave him small gifts of some variety, the gifts were never valuable that he could tell, nor were they FOOD. And he did not know how to ask, it seemed English was on a sharp decline here, as well.  
  
Trudging down a particularly beautiful street, Kabal was feeling the effects of hunger in one of it's more irritating fashions; he wanted to lay down and sleep as much as possible. Thinking where he could get some such rest, and possibly some food, he wished for a Shinto Shrine. He had seen precious few of them since he arrived here, and those were museums like the Tendo Dojo. Another one was ahead and to his left. he glanced at the sign prefunctorily, and was surprised to note it was written in proper Kanji. "Cherry Hill Shrine, est. 1128" He turned a sharp left and walked right on in, up to the outside shrine, and rang the bell, noting the shrine was devoted to Amaterasu. He clapped his hands twice, apologized for not having anything to donate, then began communing with his ancestors. His stomach could wait, this he had not done in quite some time. As soon as he raised his head again, a woman's voice spoke behind him. "Babble babble Shinto? Babble blah blah old ways blah blah here blah beautiful blah lovely?" Kabal sighed and turned about with his stanard irritation at his inability to grasp the new Japanese. He saw the .. girl.. speaking to him. She stood 5 foot 3 inches, maybe, had very long black hair with _purple_ highlights, and was wearing a traditional Miko outfit, straight down to the open sandals. What caught him was the sunny smile she was favoring him with. It was a smile that reached all the way to her eyes and made her stunningly lovely.  
  
His eyes bounced down to her hips, then her sandals, back up to her eyes again. He was about to apologize for so obviously checking her out, when he saw that as his eyes came back up, hers pulled off of looking at his bicep. He noted she was holding a broom, obviously cleaning the place, and there was a light sheen of sweat upon her brow which mussed her hair. "Blah blah blah name? Blah blah speak Japanese?" she inquired of him. He scratched the back of his head and said, "Well, yes, but not like you do." Her brow furrowed in confusion, and she said "I don't understand you." Badly wanting food, he took a random chance. "Do you speak English?" he asked. The Miko smiled, "I speak rittle bit Engrish, hai." and she moved her hand in a see-saw gesture. Kabal turned back to the shrine, clapped his hands, and said several fast prayers of thanks, then turned back. "My name is Kabal... Saotome." The Miko showed that beautiful smile again, "Preased to meet you. Namu ees Rei Hino." Kabal bowed to her, and she returned it formally. "Now that we're introduced, I must ask.. do you have any food?" Rei looked at him, slightly confused. "Food? How you mean?" Kabal bit his lower lip in frustration, then fired off several dozen Japanese words to the same effect, until her eyes brightened in recognition. "Hai! You hungry? Armost time runch anyway. You eat with me no?" Resisting the urge to kiss her full on the lips out of gratitude, he instead bowed lower and thanked her in Japanese as many ways as he knew how.  
  
Rei brought him through the inner shrine, which Kabal found as breathtaking as it's young caretaker, and into a small utalitarian kitchen. "You sit there now. You wanna ummm.. how you say, noodle?" she asked. "Ramen! Hai! I'd very much like some." he responded, though at this point he'd take bread and water with equal enthusiasm. Rei prepared the ramen quickly, and thankfully in mass quantities. She placed a steaming bowl in front of him, and poured him a cup of Sake. She looked at the bottle thoughtfully, then at the clock, and poured herself off a cup as well. She sat in the chair across from him and dazzled him with that smile again. "Where you come from?" she asked. "Across the sea. America. A city called Seattle." he answered. "You American? I always want meet American. You from New Seat? I always wanted go there, see Ariana Saotome concert." She looked him over, "Rerated Ariana Saotome?" Kabal tried to figure out what she was asking, then shook his head, "No, and that's not her real name anyway. It's a stage name. And on another point, I'm not American. I was born in Japan." He removed his mask and showed his eyes and face to her. "Ouchay!" she exclaimed, "What happen your face?" Kabal shook his head, "It's not important. It happen rong time ago." He winced. Her thick accent caused him an unintentional backslide. It took him many many countless hours of practice to work out his L's and proper tenses in the past, and it was easy to lose it when he heard another of the same accent.  
  
"What you do?" Rei asked. Kabal shook his head, "What do you mean?" Rei thought hard, then lighted upon an answer. "What you do for riving, over there? Job! What you job?" she corrected. "Oh I was a Shadowrunner, which is.." he tried to think of a way to put it so she would understand it, as he ate more. "People paid me to deliver things, and protect people. I did things that most people would or could not do themselves." Rei's face brightened further and she laughed, "You bang-bang, fight, protect, save damsels and small kids?" she asked. Kabal chuckled, "Sometimes, but I got paid for it." "Ahh!" Rei said, "You hero for hire! You do secret things for money rike James Bond, 007!" Rei said it "oh-oh-seven" instead of "double-o seven." Kabval decided that resistance was futile. "Yeah, that's about the size of it." "What you doing in Japan? You on secret mission?" she asked, eyes full of wonder. Kabal shook his head, "No, actually, I am here to find a place like this, where I can be at peace, pray, and get myself together." "You Shinto, no?" she asked. "What good Japanese person isn't?" he answered. "I agree with you." Rei said, "Too many now not care about ancestor or homerlnd or nature. Onry care about moment." Kabal smiled, she was probably as much a traditionalist as she dressed.  
  
"I was wondering, do you have any use for a shrine guard here? Give me job here?" he asked. Rei finished her Sake and poured herself another without hesitation. "Oh no!" she said, "We can not afford to have 007 around here. Not rich, prace nice, we well off yes, but no rich enough afford you." Kabal laughed, "No, just give me a place to sleep, attend to me as a Miko should any of her flock, and feed me. In return I'll clean the place up, watch over it, and defend it from any danger." Rei clapped a bit and giggled, "I have to ask Granpa when he get back, but I'm sure he say yes. It wirr be cool have... 007 around." "Yes Rei, but I prefer you call me Kabal." he said. Rei nodded. "Kabarr." "Kabal" he corrected. "Kabarral." she tried again. "Kabal." he said, then took of his mask so she could see how his mouth and tongue were working it, and repeated it several more times. She finally learned to say it satisfactorily enough, around the middle of her fourth cup of Sake. He couldn't help but wonder why Rei was getting herself squiffed.  
  
There was a clattering near the kitchen door and a voice said, "Rei? Are you in there?" "Oh shit." Rei said, she launched her cup out the window and pushed the bottle of Sake over to Kabal. Before the bottle even stopped moving, the door opened and a VERY small old man also in traditional robes walked in. Not quite as small as Happosai, but definitely close. He spoke to Rei: "Babble babble blah Rei? Blah blah blah Sake blah blah guest? Blah blah cute blah babble babble." Rei's face turned read as she responded, "Blah babble etcetera lotsofunintelligiblebabbling Kabal babble babble!" The old man shook his head and pointed at the Sake bottle. "Blah not blah drink that! Blah blah purification!" Rei blushed again and said "Yes, that's why I drank it. Cute blah blah et cetera blah speak Japanese!" she pointed at Kabal and sighed. "Actually," Kabal said in his native tongue, "I do speak Japanese, it's you people who don't. Sounds like there is Russian and Korean and Chinese in there." the old man laughed, "And Vietnamese and a smattering of Tagalog. You are correct, that's not Japanese." "Ancestor's blessings upon me that you can speak Japanese." Kabal said, "And what was all of that about, anyway?" "That Sake the two of you were drinking was set aside for purifying things, such as your mind and soul. I understand why Rei was drinking the Sake, taking you back here, but you should not have been given any." the old man said. Kabal pondered that, "Why was she drinking the Sake then?" he asked.  
  
The old man lifted the bottle and stared at Rei, whom blushed again under his gaze. "Two purposes. She likes to drink a little when I'm not around. A little, I am thankful she's not a lush like her mother. Her mother used to-" 'Oh great,' Kabal thought, 'Why do old people always tell stories at the drop of a hat?' "be a major anti-alcohol prude, wouldn't even use it to purify herself. Then Rei's father there took her out and bought her a beer, and it was all over from there. She was 24 years old and had never had liquor before. She didn't know how to handle it, liked it a lot, and was pretty much drunk the rest of her short life. I'm just thankful Rei here is not going that route." "How can you say she's not going that route when she's drinking behind your back?" he asked. The old man laughed and continued, knowing that Rei could not understand them, "What? Did you never experiment when you were young? I know exactly what she's doing." Kabal scratched the back of his head and said, "Well yeah, but whenever Pops caught me he'd yell at me." The old man smiled broadly, "Right. And you know how to handle your liquor now because of the mixed positive and negative messages. It's a balance. I don't care if Rei drinks, at all. But if I catch her, I'm going to bawl her out and punish her." Kabal started to question that further, then shut up and thought about it. That actually made sense, when he put his own youth into perspective. "You are very wise, Oji-sama." he acceded.  
  
"And what was the second reason?" he asked. "You came to this place seeking guidance, correct?" the old man asked. "Yes, I've not been to a shrine in years countless." "Sake is used, sometimes heavily by some of us, to keep our minds focused and pure." he answered. "What do you mean by that?" Kabal asked. "That's what she was trying to do." Kabal nodded a few moments to delay, then shook his head. "I'm sorry, Ojisama, but there's something I am missing here that you intended for me to see." he said. "As the only shrine representative here when you arrived, she had to keep her thoughts pure and minister to you honorably." the old man said. "I don't understand. Is she that afraid that she will say something improper?" The old man eyed him thoroughly, then laughed out loud. "For such an obvious martial artist, you certainly have difficulty reading people. Don't worry about it for now. Rei tells me that you come here seeking employment?" Kabal nodded, "Somewhat. I am more here to meditate and center myself, but food and shelter I need for these things. I will gladly trade my services as a martial artist." "And what art do you practice, Kabal? By the way you sit and carry yourself, I'd say Szechuan Kenpo." the old man said. Kabal was astounded, "You knew that just by the way I was sitting here? Your wisdom is greater than I thought!." The old man laughed again, "No. My powers of bullshit are far beyond what you thought. You're so easy. I saw you beating up some thugs a couple days ago. You happen to use the same style that my grand-daughter Rei is learning." "Ah," Kabal said, "Then that, too, is how I will earn my keep. I will spar with her, enhance her lessons." "No," the old man said, "You are a Master, whether you think so or not. You will not assist her lessons, you will take them over." Kabal stood and bowed to the old man, "As you so wish, Ojisama. By what named will I call you?" "Ojisama is fine. Or just use the english word 'Grandpa'. Lot's of people do." 


	5. Chapter 5: Crudity and the Future

Special Note: Oh fuck the metric system.  
  
"Darkness falls across the land  
  
The midnight hour is close at hand  
  
Creatures crawl in search of blood  
  
To terrorize y'awl's neighborhood  
  
And whosoever shall be found  
  
Without the soul for getting down  
  
Must stand and face the hounds of hell  
  
And rot inside a corpse's shell  
  
The foulest stench is in the air  
  
The funk of forty thousand years  
  
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb  
  
Are closing in to seal your doom  
  
And though you fight to stay alive  
  
Your body starts to shiver  
  
For no mere mortal can resist  
  
The evil of the thriller"  
  
- Vincent Price, from Michael Jackson's "Thriller"  
  
Twisted Prophecy - Chapter 5  
  
From: Kabal Saotome  
  
To: Brigadier General Tina Kurosawa  
  
Subject: Having fun in Japan  
  
Att: me and the miko.hpx  
  
Tina-Chan,  
  
How are you doing up there? Figured I'd mail you.. Joshua gave me this "Pocket Secretary" thing and I thought it was just for storing data on runs. Lo and behold, I can send mail to anyone else on it! Neat shit I made it to Japan OK. It was lean times a bit there for me. They use Nuyen here as well, but shit's a lot more expensive. I finally picked up a job at the local Shinto Shrine as a guardian/janitor/martial arts teacher. The attached holo is of myself and the Miko I met there. her name is Rei Hino and she's real nice... when she's not being an extreme bitch. She's got a friend named Usagi, whom she is really bitchy towards all the time. I'm not entirely sure, but I think that Usagi's cat talks. ::shrug:: Considering I turn into a girl with cold water, I'm not one to throw stones about weird stuff.  
  
Speaking of weird stuff, check this out: I noticed that crystal I always wear.... it flashes red when I'm around Rei, and of late the hue and intensity of it has increased. It blinks white when I'm around Usagi, green when I'm around their other friend Makoto (and real bright and intense for her, a bit more than Rei's color I'd say, and the one time I was around Usagi's mother I could swear it was doing a purple flash. I figured it might be some kinda thing about women, but it only seems select women. Usagi's friend Naru has no effect, nor their friend Ami. I saw a blonde chick with them once, and in her presence I got a yellow light. I went to a singles bar and tried hitting on women, and the crystal doesn't react at all.  
  
This place has been real good for me. Rei's given me a lot of guidance, and she's helped me work out my issues with the past. I'm not really so angry and hurt anymore. I'm still gonna find and kill that damn centaur.. he killed my wife, you know, but it doesn't haunt my dreams every night. Guess what? I found the old Tendo Dojo. It's a museum now! And I'm in line to inherit it! Ick, not my style, but it's something to keep in mind if you ever decide to move to Japan. I'll be back in a coupla weeks or so, or ya'all can come visit me. You'll have to sneak in, but hey. Or just have a concert! People love you here. Wouldn't they be surprised to know how well I _really_ know 'Ariana Saotome', eh? They speak some pretty fucked-up excuse for Japanese here, but it's so easy even I picked it up.  
  
Love Always,  
  
Kabal Saotome, your Ran-Chan  
  
(This first part just begged for it's own quote)  
  
"Oh the female sex has a lot more class, unless we're lookin at a male stripper's ass..."  
  
- Unknown, "The Woman Song"  
  
"007?" Rei called. She was still saying it 'oh oh seven'. Kabal, fresh out of the shower, popped his head and upper body into the room where Rei and several of her friends were talking. "Yes, Rei-chan?" he responded. "Can you bring us some hot tea?" Rei asked. "As you wish." Kabal said and left the room. Makoto wet her fingertip and placed it against the tabletop, making a hissing sound and jerking her hand away from the table as if burned. Usagi giggled at her, "Yeah, I know! Did you see those pecs?" she clasped her hands over her heart, "Could just sweep you up and carry you off into the sunset with those!" Makoto shook her head, "The only thing he'll be doing with those arms is using them to hold me up while I fuck the hell out of him!" Rei looked at Makoto, somewhat shocked, "Wow Mako-chan, I've never heard you say something like that before. I thought you'd just compare him to an ex-boyfriend of yours." Usagi gigled again, "Yeah but with that muscle tone, I bet he could last all night.!" Rei decided to abandon propriety, "Yeah, well I 'accidentally' walked in on him one morning, and you know what happens to all men in the morning." Usagi squealed, laughing at the same time, "Oh give up the goods Rei, how is it?" Makoto turned to her as well, attention rapt. Ami shushed all of them, as Kabal was returning.  
  
Kabal placed the tray on the table, and began divvying out the tea cups, then pouring for them. "Excuse me, 007?" Rei said. "Yes Rei-chan?" Kabal answered. "Can you go over there and pull the blinds open for us? It's a beautiful day outside and we wish to see it." Kabal nodded, "As you wish." He reached up and pulled the blinds for them, then turned around. "Anything else, Rei-chan?" he asked. "Yes, go fetch us something to eat." she said. Kabal bowed lightly, "As you wish." and left towards the kitchen.  
  
Makoto made vague grabbing motions toward's Kabal's backside on the way out. "Would you just LOOK at that ass?" she cried. "And those arms uhhhh! Thanks for having him reach for the blinds Rei." Usagi said. "Yeah," Rei retorted, "Don't say I never did anything for you now." "Weren't you discussing the length of his manhood earlier?" Ami asked. The other girls turned to her, "Ami! You of all people!" Ami took her reading glasses off. "No, I really want to know, because the average male does not acheive that sort of build without chemical enhancement, and that generally stunts the male member's growth. I'd be interested to know what the effects of that are." Makoto nodded at her, "Yeah. What that all amounts to is you wanna know how big it is, too." "For entirely academic reasons." Usagi added, trying to hold a straight face. Kabal, about to walk out of the kitchen, clearly heard the last part, and with a snicker decided to choose a different snack food to serve them instead.  
  
"You see," Rei said, "It's not exactly the type of thing a man likes made public, and after all.. everything that goes on in a shrine is held in the utmost of secrecy by a priestess." "Oh cut the crap Rei!" Makoto said. "Really!" Rei said, "It's a law! Anything he says or I see cannot even be extracted from me by a court!" "Oh come ON Rei!" Usagi said. "No!" Rei said, picking up a ruler. "A trusted Miko does not spread nasty gossip about her 'parishoners', and I've had it up to about HERE," she indicated the 9 inch mark, "with you girls trying to subvert that!" "Holy shit that's unnatural!" Makoto said. Usagi crossed her arms and harumphed. "My Mamo-chan has a foot at least!" she said. "You ever _seen_ it?" Rei asked. Yeah!" she said, "He left the bathroom door open when he was taking a piss." she said. The other girls, including Ami, looked at each other uncomfortably, then broke out laughing. "What? What's so funny?" Usagi asked. Rei, holding back tears, tried to say something else, but bursted into heavy laughter again. "Usagi-sama, " Ami said, "A man is not erect when he's pissing, they are just not built that way." "Yeah!" Usagi said, "That means it gets bigger when he's excited. I got me a whole lotta man, I do!." Ami shook her head, "If it were 12 inches long flaccid, it could be anywhere up to 30 inches long erect. He would not be able to get that erect without passing out." "In other words," Rei said, "Not only are you full of shit, but you're stupid, too." "Hey that was really mean Rei! I'm not stupid!" Usagi cried, and the waterworks began. At the same moment, Kabal walked out and served their snack.... long Italian sausages, each with two sugar odango balls at the base. All the girls, Ami included, started howling and laughing anew. Kabal, knowing his duty was done here, went to the dojo room and began practicing.  
  
Kabal came out of meditation several hours later, after a strenuous workout. The sun was just about to dip under the horizon, and it bathed the interior of the practice room in a soft red light. The door slid open behind him, and he heard Rei quietly enter. "Yes, Rei-chan, do you need anything?" he asked. There were a few moments of silence before Rei spoke up. "Yes. How do I look, 007?" Kabal did not get up from where he was kneeling, just pivoted. When he saw her, he was glad he had not stood up, because he'd have found his knees weak. She was clad in a red kimono with a floral pattern on top and flame on bottom. It hugged her curvy form ever so slightly, emphasizing the shape of her hips. She wore 6 inch high heeled sandals, open with straps about the ankles, and one around her big toes. Her feet were held at a sharp downward cant by the design of the shoe, and Kabal found that particularly fetching. Her toenails were painted a deep crimson red, and she wore a golden anklet on her left leg. His eyes raised, up over her form, to her face. She was wearing little makeup, only a touch of dark eyeshadow to offset her purple eyes, and her hair was beautifully combed out, with a braid at each temple, tied to each other across the back of her head. To top it all off, that smile was upon her lips.  
  
"Your beauty at this moment is making all women that are, were, or ever will be jealous." he said, as it was the first thing to occur to him. It was her smile, he concluded. When she smiled, nothing could compare to her. Too bad her smile was so rare. "Why thank you 007! You flatter me too much!" she said, blushing. Kabal finally stood up. "Wherever are you going that you grace with your beauty?" he asked. "It's my school's Sadie Hawkins dance." she responded. Kabal clapped his hands, "Well, whoever's the one you're going to ask, he's a lucky guy." Rei shuffled her feet, "Stop that 007! You're embarassing me." "The truth embarasses you? Take your compliments, drop the Miko humility with people, and go fetch your guy; he'd have to be blind or gay to turn you down." he said back. Rei turned a shade of red to almost match her kimono, and shyly stammered out, "So.. a-are you gay or blind?" she asked, then mentally slapped herself because that sounded incredibly stupid. Kabal, not the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to matters of emotion and subtlety, laughed, "Of course not! If you were asking me I'd go in a heartbeat. Now go FETCH the poor sod!" he said, holding the door open for her. Rei looked down at her feet and bit her lower lip. "What're you waiting for?" Kabal asked. "Little bit of jitters? Don't worry Rei, you look utterly heavenly. Crikey, you want me to go snag the dude and drag him here?" he continued. Rei took Kabal's hand and placed it upon the waist of his own Hakama pants. "Th--there.. ugh. You uh.. snagged him." she was staring hard anywhere but at him.  
  
Kabal's amazing field of oafish stupidity was finally pierced by that.  
  
"You're asking me to go, Rei-chan?" he said, to clarify. Rei nodded slightly. He grinned, and dropped to bow in a fully European style. "As you wish. I must go get dressed."  
  
He appeared again 10 minutes later, slipping a black kung-fu jacket with red ties over his sleeveless kung-fu shirt, which was red with black ties. He was wearing loose martial arts pants tied at the bottom, and leather kung-fu shoes to match. His hair was hanging down loose, and he was brushing it as he approached Rei. "I can take my mask off, if you want, but I'll need to wear an abvious nose-filter." Rei shook her head, "It's OK. It's a costume ball."  
  
They arrived to Rei's private school not long thereafter, Rei presented the doorman with their invitations and he waved them inside. Kabal quickly saw that he was surrounded by astounding snobbery, and as such shut his brain off to let himself get through the night. He concentrated instead upon Rei, giving her the full benefits of his attention. At some point, Rei noted that Kabal was less than enthusiastic. "You're not having a whole lot of fun, are you?" she asked. "It's not you, Rei," he said, deciding to pull her close to him during their dance, "I just don't have a lot of fun at places like this. This is not my style." Rei nodded her head against his chest, and asked, "Then why did you come?" "Because," he said, "You look absolutely radiant tonight, and I couldn't pass on the opportunity to have a date with you. I'm sorry, I'll try to liven up a little, I know you're having fun." Rei looked up at him, trying to look into his eyes through the mask, "Are you kidding? This kind of crap bores the hell out of me. I just thought you'd want to do something... sophisticated." she said. "What made you think I was sophisticated in any way Rei?" he asked. "Good point, you've never given me any reason to believe you like stuffy affairs like this. I just..." she trailed off. "Just what?" Kabal prompted. Rei buried her head back on his shoulder, "I just didn't want you to think of me as a little girl." Kabal thought 'With a body like yours I still think you were lying when you told me you were 14!', but did not say that, "I never thought of you that way, Rei. You're every bit a woman, and you've taught me a lot about life, and myself." Rei looked back at him, "I... I wonder if you-" there was a beep from Rei's kimono sash. "Oh shit why now?" she mumbled, rolling her eyes. "Would you excuse me I gotta go powdermynose." Rei said as she dashed off to the bathroom.  
  
Less than a minute later, Rei ran past him full tilt. "I gotta run, had a wonderful time meet me back at home for drinks!" she yelled to him. Kabal's adrenaline boosters warmed up, and his optical implants informed him that she was flushed and scared. Kabal decided that he would, indeed, go home. To pick up some weapons so he could help Rei with whatever.  
  
Sailor Jupiter lowered her arms down, having completed the lighntning strike. Some of the people stayed down, burnt quite crispy, but others got back up and continued shambling towards her and her friends. Sailor Mercury was attempting to remain stoic about all of this, until she saw one of the people missing half of it's face, jaw dangling loosely. Upon that, she threw up. Sailor Mars arrived, and looked over the mass. "Unholy. Unclean. Those people are dead, and they are walking." she said. Sailor Venus nodded her head slowly, "Yep, Night of the Living Dead." "What are we gonna do now?" asked Sailor Moon. Tuzedo Mask landed next to her and surveyed the encroaching mass. "If we had some guns, we could pop em in the head." Venus said. "Mina!" Moon chided, "These were PEOPLE you're talking about like that." "Key word being 'were', Moon." Venus said. "They look like they'd burn well." Mars said. Jupiter and Venus looked at each other, then Venus said, "Jupes and I will do what we can, but we'll mostly have to rely on our Karate." Mars, looking over the size, agreed, "Me too. I can't burn all of them, I don't have that much in me." "What about me?" Moon asked. Jupiter looked at her, "There's not really much you can do with these. Hang back on this one eh?" she said. Tuxedo Mask looked at the rose in his hand and wondered if it would be of any use. He offered encouragement, "Well, stick together Sailor Scouts, and with your combined power no foe will stand before you." The zombies were finally close enough to them to be taken seriously. One lurched towards Mars, one bloody hand held high towards her. She prepared to attack.  
  
It's head exploded, spraying a bit of ichor upon her. "Rei!" came a voice from her left. Kabal stood there, overjacket off. He was carrying a shotgun of some kind, a pistol on his waist, and a Bo staff in the off hand. "007!" she screamed joyously, as Kabal launched to the attack. He exhausted his shotgun quickly, and threw it far behind him.. along with a box of shells. The zombies threatened to surround him, but with twirling Bo staff he kept them at bay. After he grouped them at a distance, he ran into their midst, striking deadly. A kick to break a spinal column here, a punch destroying a skull and leaking brain out there. Kabal was, amazingly enough, holding them off almost as fast as they were coming. Almost. He was slowly losing ground as the horde approached, filling positions he had just abandoned with dozens.  
  
"How did he know who you are, Rei?" Mercury asked. "I don't know." Mars said. Venus brushed past them, saying "While you guys are fucking around, I'm going to help him." She approached Kabal, and took the pistol off his belt. He was a bit surprised, but didn't care much when he saw she knew how to use it very well. Before running out of ammo, she had killed 15 of them. One with each shot. She held out her hand and a length of heart-shaped chain appeared in it, which she used to do battle with. "Makoto!" Kabal yelled, "Give Ami the shotgun and get over here and help us!" Tuxedo Mask grimaced. "Well, he apparently knows who all of you are. But, great warrior though he is, he cannot do this all himself. Move it Scouts!"  
  
Tuxedo Mask took a crowbar from a nearby toolbox and joined the battle. Mercury haltingly operated the shotgun, while Mars also entered the fray, throwing as much fire as she could muster. Moon simply stood back, knowing that there was nothing she could do to help her friends right now. Kabal twisted a zombie's head clean off, then slid over to Venus. "You've killed before." he said, "A lot." "I'm a Sailor Soldier." Venus responded. "We fight for love, and justice. Sailor Senshi do not kill if it can be avoided." Kabal chuckled, "I didn't say anything about Sailor Senshi, I said _you_ have killed." Venus nodded, "Yeah.. it's in my eyes, isn't it?" she asked. "That," Kabal said, "and the fact that you fight like a Spetsnatz soldier who learned Tiger Style." Venus sighed, "Yes I was trained by some of the best." "You a 'runner?" he asked. She shook her head. "Who do you work for then? MI6? KGB?" he asked. She glared at him while stomping on a spinal column, "You know I can't tell you that." Kabal looked at her, then on a whim slipped down to look up her skirt. "Hey!" she screamed. Kabal kicked up and smashed in a zombie's face. "You're one of them new M.A.M.A. clones we've been hearing about." "What the fuck are you talking about?" Venus asked, "I work for M.A.M.A. yeah but I'm no fucking clone. And just how the fuck did you know that anyway?" "Vulgar, vulgar." he said, "I did a run against their England headquarters for Renraku. They had a bunch of clones on ice." "What's that got to do with me?" Venus asked. "You're one of them." he said. "Am not!" she said, "And what makes you think that anyway?" "Your ass. I saw the asses on those clones and I really wanted to wake one of them up. I'll never forget that ass." he said, as he bounded away to assist Jupiter.  
  
She had suffered some injuries, but was still fighting strong. She had a look of disgust and despair on her face, however. "What's the matter, Makoto?" he asked. She headbutted a zombie to the ground and sent a small bolt of lightning into it's face. "These things.. these are dead people." "Yes," Kabal agreed, "They are." "This doesn't bother you at all? These aren't like monsters I fought before, these were once _people_." she said. Kabal chuckled, "Search yourself Makoto. They are your enemy. Do you really care what they were? They are not people now, and they're trying to kill you." Makoto's eyes hardened shortly after that. "You're.. right." she said. Kabal, felt a strong, and thankfully brief, desire to hold her to him and kiss her. "It gets easier, Makoto. Don't worry." He jumped off of a zombie's head, and met with Tuxedo Mask.  
  
Tuxedo Mask was doing his best out of his element, trying to bash in skulls with the crowbar. Kabal saw his light step, his slow reactions, and the grimace on his face. Kabal sized him up quickly, and decided to be careful with this one. He was, to put it bluntly, a pussy, but he didn't seem to know it. He seemed to be fighting half-hearted, almost as if finding it somehow unfair that he had to put forth this much effort, but with too much ego to stop fighting. A man like that could turn out in two different ways. "Come on man, hang in there," he said. Tuxedo Mask gave him a cordial smile. Kabal decided a quick ego stroke would increase his fighting capacity. "With your help I'm sure we'll pull through this allright." Kabal was correct, Tuxedo Mask fought harder now.  
  
At this time, the Japanese Self Defense force landed choppers which unloaded troops (mostly female, of course; though led by men). The battle did not last long after that, and the individual Sailor Senshi actually dropped out of sight one by one before the battle was ended. As the last zombie took a grenade round to it's chest; Kabal decided it would be a good time for him to leave as well.  
  
He caught Sailor Mercury not too far away, she was trying to disassemble the shotgun. He took it from her and said, "Ami, those were not typical zombies." he said. She looked at him somewhat blankly, "I'm used to seeing things called 'Ghouls', but they're faster and stronger. And they were grouped a coupla dozen. Ghouls attack in small packs." Mercury continued staring at him, but he could tell she was remembering this information. "I understand." she said. "If I may ask, how did you know who we were?" "It was actually kinda odd," he said. I could _feel_ it was Rei and Makoto and Usagi, and Venus was that blonde chick I met before. I couldn't physically recognize any of them right away. It took a while for my mind to reconcile itself. Part of me was trying to say that you all were absolute strangers, but another part of me KNEW." "That's interesting there, " Mercury said. "Further interest for you: I'm not sure you're Ami: I'm just guessing based on the fact that you have blue hair and you're hanging with them." Mercury nodded, "I am Ami... you did not know me like the others?" she asked. Kabal shook his head. "That is interesting." she said, feeling vaguely left out somehow. "Now I gotta go home, I'm pretty sure Rei could use a little support about now."  
  
Rei was kneeling in front of the fire, divining images of the future from it. Though she could never be absolutely certain of what she saw, it was usually pretty clear. She went through the proper hand motions and prayers. What she saw shocked her greatly. She sat for a long time, trying to see how she could accept it all. She felt a pang of jealousy, she would not be the bride, but that subsided quickly as she knew that her own role could easily be considered greater.  
  
Kabal banged into the shrine loudly, and Rei heard him grabbing a bottle of Sake. She stood up, turned to her right, and changed back from Sailor Mars into simply Rei Hino. She smoothed out her kimono, touched up her hair, and walked towards the kitchen, to speak with the man whom she would in the future be concubine to, and in the present.... 


	6. Chapter 6: Holy love polygons, Batman!

"One heart is all I ask for and this; two strong arms, and a license to kill"  
  
- 'Ni-Ni', 1-2-3-4-007, Dance Dance Revolution  
  
Twisted Prophecy, Chapter 6  
  
Rei entered the kitchen where Kabal was, and she sighed tiredly as she let her hair entirely down. She considered him as he looked over the contents of the fridge. A simple, noble man. Brash and oftimes seemingly uncaring, but always with his heart in the right place. "I hear you standing there Rei. Want a beer?" he asked. "What the hell why not?" she responded, still comparing the man in front of her to the man the fire had shown her. Warrior, lover, yes. But royalty? He would never make good royalty.  
  
The fire had showed her, among other things, that this man would have two choices to make. One would lead to a magical artifact; an orb of some sort that was carried by a young boy, and a confrontation that had happened many times before between a family line and a dark god. The other path led somewhere Rei herself was partially familiar with. A battle to restore an old kindom's glory, enemies that themselves were enslaved, and a throne upon the moon. Along that path also lay a confrontation with the agent of a far more familiar god. Both paths showed him clad in the robes of obvious royalty. Though Rei did not see this explicitly, she also got the feeling that no matter which path chosen, he would still have to deal with the god of the other, as well. That what represented each path was the marriage to a woman; the other would be a concubine, and the battle would not be avoided. What bothered her is that she was not at the head of either of these paths. Her two closest friends were. She was relegated to the position of "concubine". Though the fire did offer her some consolation, it seemed she would get something else above others as well. More, she would mean much to this, as it was her place to absolve him and set him free. She had already absolved him of his past... and the rest would happen in time. Rei Hino was unashamed and unafraid; the one thing the flame has assured her was that she would never be betrayed by this man.  
  
Kabal returned with the beers in hand, tops already popped off. he sat down and drank off half of his in three large swallows. Rei sipped hers... and found it repulsively bitter. She sipped again to be polite, secretly wondering why Kabal seemed to enjoy it so much. Kabal sighed loudly, and Rei noticed that he was avoiding meeting her eyes. "007." she said. He looked at her, and then pulled off his mask for another drink of beer. "Why do you keep calling me that?" he asked. Rei shrugged, "I don't know really. It's cute. Kabal, I-" Kabal silenced her with his expression as he glanced at the clock. "Rei!" he said, a little too loudly, "Do you have school tomorrow?" "Yes, 007, I do." she responded. Kabal actually looked somewhat relived as he said, "Then you need to go to bed! It's 1am!" Rei rubbed her eyes and noted that she was, indeed, exhausted. She also knew that Kabal was having a major attack of guilt. His eyes met hers, "Go on to bed Rei." "What about you Kabal?" she asked. "I'm gonna go out for a walk," he said, "I have a lotta thinking to do, ya know?" It was now Rei's turn to sigh, slightly annoyed that he was brushing her off. She decided she was too tired to drag anything out of him now, but couldn't help but have the last word. "Well, I'll keep the cover drawn back on my bed for you."  
  
Rei stalked into her room, feeling rather hurt. She had just given her virginity to a man, and he suddenly didn't want to talk to her. The flame had told her that he would love her forever, but it sure didn't seem like that right now. And the fire had been wrong before. Thinking about it, she felt unsure, as if she might have just imagined the whole thing because Kabal was such an attractive man. Maybe she was just looking for a reason to justify her acting on her hormones. Maybe.. but then why would I show myself a vision of him marrying someone else? So I can have some emotionally detached sex? But it wasn't that... no. If she was trying that, it certainly failed, there was no emotional detachment here. She realized also that she was crying a bit, unwillingly. And her chest... it almost felt as if something were gnawing at her heart. 'Maybe I should get and try to get some answers.' she thought. She resolved to go to the shrine room and do exactly that... right after she rested her eyes a moment.  
  
She opened them again to notice the glorious morning sun was shining right on her naked form. She streched and blearily look about for her clock. 7:06! She was going to be late for school! She dashed about, throwing clothing on, and rushed through the kitchen. There her grandfather was sitting, reading his morning paper. "Morning Rei." he said calmly. Too calmly, Rei noted. "I didn't hear you getting up this morning, so I figured I'd let you sleep in." Rei bowed quickly, "Thanks Grampa." He indicated two bento boxes on the other side of the table. "I took the liberty of making your lunch, and a quick breakfast." Rei bowed again, "Thanks Grampa! I thought I'd have to buy something on the way!" "Right," Grampa said, not raising his eyes from the paper, "And I made your breakfast really high protein. That kind of exercise can really take the energy reserves right out of you." Rei froze and blushed deeply. Of course he would have heard, Rei was openly screaming a few times the night before. "Go to school Rei." he said, still behind his newspaper, "you have to study for exams. I'll see you later." Rei scooped up the meals, "Aren't you going to say anything about it?" "Well, you certainly seemed to enjoy yourself, " Grampa said, a small tone of mischief evident in his voice. Rei's mouth hung open and she remained silent. "Oh, there is this though, did you use protection?" "No.." she said, squirming uncomfortably "It never even crossed my mind." Grampa lowered the newspaper and looked at her piercingly. "I thought you were more responsible than that, Rei." "Er..." Rei said, "I didn't think I'd need any." "And why is that, Rei?" She stammered a few moments to buy time, but he stopped her, "Because you went to see Dr. Tomoe and you got yourself a prescription about two months ago." Rei was still stunned and unable to speak, "Damnit Rei," Grampa said, not looking particularly angry, "I'm not mad about any of this, in fact I expected it, I just wish you wouldn't go behind my back." "But.. how did you know?" Rei asked. Grampa laughed, "You never got around to intercepting the insurance statement before I got to it. Now go to school. And cover your behind better." Rei tugged at her skirt and then stopped, and immediately felt foolish, when she realized that he didn't mean it that way.  
  
She stepped outside and turned to look at the sun as she always did on her way. She saw Kabal was sitting on the roof. "Hi 007!" she said brightly. "G'mornin, Rei." he responded, sounding somewhat distracted. Rei felt that strange gnaw at her chest again. "007?" she asked, "Have I.... done something wrong?" "No." Kabal said. Then Rei smiled and said, "Then neither did you." and she rushed off to school.  
  
And Kabal thought that through as he spent the morning atop the shrine roof. He hopped down at a later point and walked around the park there, and returned around lunch, where he cooked for himself and Rei's grandfather. They never spoke, save for him saying; "Rei should be coming home in a few hours. Please take care of her, I am going to Kyoto for the night," right before Kabal left to do the week's shopping.  
  
Kabal turned down the final street towards the shrine, and waved at the elderly couple sitting in front of their house as he always did. While turning back to the road after doing so, he caught sight of something strange near the coffee house the next half-block over: A woman sitting in the chair out in front of the house, book in hand, talking to a woman who was in a trenchcoat and hat... that moved with the exact same mannerisms. Knowing that only ninja studied targets that well... and usually showed themselves to their target right before eliminating them, he shouldered the pack more securely and rushed over. He came within earshot to detect the first woman saying "You're not kidding?" The second woman answered in an identical voice, "No, I am not. We can't waste any time. There's time for so much more if we start NOW." The first woman looked irritated, "You know what? I hate it when we do this. It always gives me a massive headache." The second responded with, "Listen to what I say! I'm doing this for a damn good-" The second woman cut off when the first looked up and saw Kabal approaching. The second woman said nothing more save "Shit." and walked off briskly.  
  
Completely befuckled, Kabal decided to play it cool.  
  
"Hi!" he said, "Do you know anywhere I can get good coffee around here?"  
  
Well, he had given "playing it cool" a good college try, anyway.  
  
The woman stared at him for a few moments with a look that reminded Kabal of the looks Ryoga had often gotten when asking for directions. She then pointed at the store she was sitting in front of. "Thanks!" Kabal said, recovering quickly. He deposited his bag at her table and rushed inside; where he ordered a Green Tea Latte and popped back out... but stopped to examine the woman a moment before he sat. She had skin darker than most Asiatics, almost olive colored. It was exotic in it's tone, and somehow clashed almost... sensuously, with her evergreen colored hair. She looked around and peered at him a moment, and he took in the details of her eyes; crimson in colour and of a slightly different slant than most Japanese. Her legs were long and her hips well rounded, if a bit smallish. She uncrossed her legs with an easy grace, before sliding them to the other crossed position. He noted that she pointed her foot as it dangled; she seemed a picture of almost noble femininity. On a hunch, he checked the amulet inside his shirt.... it was throbbing gently in a hue matching her hair color. His curiosity overcame propriety.  
  
Kabal sat right in fron of her and asked, "Are you a Sailor Scout?" The woman's composure did not change at all, nor did she react physically in the slighest. Were it not for a fast glint in her eyes, he would have taken her next statement somewhat differently. "Sailor Moon and her friends do have many wonderful adventures... though it is the dream of many a girl to lead that kind of life, alas, I am not included in these adventures." Kabal nodded a moment, sipped his latte, and said, "What, somebody has to stay behind and watch the home base?" The woman laughed lightly and elegantly, "I don't think the Scouts have a home base. My name is Charlene." Kabal nodded, "And I am called Kabal. Pleased to met you." He extended his hand to shake, but she merely smiled enigmatically at him and said "I do not touch strangers. Kabal is not your real name, is it?" Kabal withdrew his hand and said, "You tell me your secret identity and I'll tell you mine." Charlene laughed again, "I am who you see before you." Kabal sipped again and said, "And who else are you?" She locked eyes with him, "A lover of good coffee, excellent literature, harmonious music and fine beer." "Fine beer?! I didn't know there was any such thing." Charlene smiled, "Then perhaps maybe it is something you should no longer miss. Would you care to buy the lady a drink?" Kabal stood up and bowed sweepingly, "Certainly. Sit tight and tell me what to get us? Sorry, but it would be a shame to hide someone like you in a poorly lit bar." Charlene pointed to the chinese bar somewhat down the block and said, "Tell them the green lady would like drinks for two." Kabal saluted her and walked off, swaggering for comic effect, stopping to give her a thumbs up before walking in.  
  
Charlene was a bit surprised by her actions... she had not drank with a man in over 2 hundred years. She shrugged it off, and awaited his return.  
  
Several hours, and several rounds of drinks had passed during which they chatted lightly of all manner of things. Though Charlene did become a bit more free and giggly, she never lost one iota of the class she displayed at the start. He did notice that whenever he asked her any questions about her background, she managed to deftly sweep the question aside, or turn it around on him. She would then ask questions in such a way that he spoke of himself the entire time, and she never revealed a thing. He felt that she would make a master Geisha look like a doddling schoolgirl. He moved to take her hand in the middle of one of her questions, and she noticed it only as their hands were about to touch.. she jerked hers away so rapidly that she knocked over one of the empty bottles. "Clumsy of me, that!" she said, smiling cheerfully, "good thing the cleaning robot comes through in 11 minutes!" He noted that she said that without even so much as glancing at a clock or her watch. Internal chronometer? "Why won't you let me touch you?" he asked. She looked at him almost despairingly, "Because I can't." and she actually seemed to well up tears for a moment. She looked away, sniffed once, and composed herself, before looking back to him. "You can't? What happened?" "It's complicated." she responded. "I've noticed you've not once lied to me this entire time. You've evaded the truth, but you've not lied to me. Why not?" he asked.  
  
She stared piercingly at him. "You're awfully perceptive, for someone who seems so boorish." Kabal shrugged, "Well, I AM boorish. Nothing seeming about it. But I guess I always had a knack for picking up on some things. Totally miss lotsa stuff that otehrs would see as obvious... but I'm weird like that." "Really?" Charlene said, swallowing a few ounces of beer before speaking again, "like... what kind of things do you notice?" "Well, for starters," Kabal said, "I noticed that you once again turned a situation back around on me to get me to change the subject by talking about myself. I'm not buying it. Why won't you let me touch you?" She looked away, "A lady of my upbringing does not go about letting relative strangers touch her." "You're baiting me into pressing you for details on where you came from. You REALLY want me to drop this, don't you?" She turned to him and offered him a mute nod. "I'll drop it, if you'll admit to being a Sailor Scout." "That makes no sense. That's ridiculously tangential to this." she returned. "There you go again, " Kabal said, "Evading but not lying! Are you, or are you not a Sailor Scout?" Charlene smiled again, and sipped her beer. "Yes." "Finally a straight answer." he said. Charlene, totally back into her easygoing demeanour, said, "Correct. I answered the question you asked."  
  
Kabal, never much of an intellectual, mulled that over in his head for a long while. "I asked you 'Are you or are you not a Sailor Scout?' and you said yes. Clever." Charlene shrugged again. "So why don't you just lie to me?" She looked at him for a full minute before opening her mouth. "I... wish to know why you ask I am a Sailor Scout before I tell you whether I am or not." Kabal took out his crystal, still pulsing the color of her hair, and showed it to her. He saw immediately that she knew what it was, but decided he would ask her later. "There have been several women that this crystal has glowed around. Not all of them were Sailor Scouts, nor did all Sailor Scouts cause this reaction. But most of the women were."  
  
Charlene looked into her drink, and finished the rest off at one gulp. "Yes. I am a Sailor Scout. I am the oldest; I was there before the original court they were part of fell. I am Sailor Pluto." Kabal nodded, respectfully. He now understood why such grace, such natural ease.... she had been a lady back when being a "lady" meant something. "That... that crystal.. I have never seen one do that before." She met Kabal's eyes, "As I am a Sailor Scout, as you are a Crystal Knight. You are of the order that guarded the court, and all the crystals were thought destroyed as all the bloodlines were ended. These crystals came into being when a man was born to the role, and found their way to him sometime in their life. And upon their deaths, the crystal would fragment and blow away into a fine dust."  
  
"Why don't you lie to me?" he asked. She looked away and he saw color in her cheeks, and sadness in her eyes, "I am attracted to you. Sometimes love comes on fast for a woman, even of my age." "Then are you afraid for your honor? Is that why I cannot touch you?" Charlene turned back to him, "That is not it at all. My honor would not be sullied by laying with a man of such noble lineage." "You said 'love'." he said. Charlene's cheeks flushed again, "I did at that did I not?" He drank from his beer again, "You do not know me." Charlene sighed, "Why do men think they are so deep? I can judge a man at a glance, in his walk, his posture, the tone of his voice. I know what attracts me, and you are it. And you are without pretense; that surprised me." "So you have me all figured out already?" he asked. Charlene shook her head, "Not at all, but it does not take long to learn the worth of a man." "You are old-fashioned, you know that? 'Worth of a man'" Charlene drank again, "It's not any older fashioned than I myself am. I come from an age where women married young, and well. We had to be good judges or be unhappy forever."  
  
"Then why not allow me to touch you?" he asked, "moving too fast?" "No, Kabal. Would that I could you would be in my bedchamber tonight." she said, allowing the alcohol to amplify her desires and wash her in them, "But I cannot; everything I touch dies." Kabal smiled and thought of the time a girl in his village had said that exact thing after two of her betrothed died in horrible accidents. "Oh please, bad luck does not mean you are..." Charlene reached over her head and touched the grapevine there as Kabal continued, "..doomed to it for eternity. Sometimes people die, and I know it hurts but you cannot blame yourself. Life just doesn't work- " he shut his mouth so quickly it made a sound when he saw the vine just beginning to show some browning in it's extremeties. He watched in a state of silent awe as the entire vine withered and died in the space of the next 15 minutes.  
  
Charlene stood up. "See? Now you know what? I'm going to walk away from here before I actually come to love you. My heart cannot take it again." "Charlene." Kabal said in a voice low enough that she could pretend to ginore it if she chose to. She did not. "Yes?" "The sun is a beautiful thing. Her radiance warms us all. I love her very much, but I cannot touch the sun, that would seriously hurt. Nor can I look upon her for long. I need neither touch her nor be in her company to love her." Charlene turned back somewhat, "You're not very good at metaphors." "But you get what I am saying?" he asked. "Do you know what you are doing to me right now?" she returned. "Making you fall in love with me?" he guessed. "Damn you!" Charlene responded in a sudden flash of high emotion. She teared up quickly and turned away. "No!" she said, "You are torturing me! I told you a truth and now you are mocking me with it!" "How am I mocking you?" She turned back to him, anger in her eyes, "In the space of four hours and seven minutes you have.. done.. this... and..." her composure returned, "I should not have admitted my attraction to you."  
  
Time slowed for Kabal a moment. He thought of everything this woman was saying, and he thought of what must have brought her to the point she is now. Awful loneliness, to have such a strong reaction to a man she had only just met. He looked at her standing there, not a hair out of place and incredibly ladylike, but with a fierce anger/pain in her eyes. His heart swelled and he damned himself silently even as he said aloud:  
  
"It's OK. I'm glad you did. I hope you stay in my life. Your love would be a treasure that I would hate myself forever for passing up upon." he said. She glared at him, "Even if I could never touch you, in any way shape or form?" she asked. "Though contact with you would never be something I could have; to not have love of one like you would be far greater of the two tragedies." Charlene looked him over, returning to her composure again, and he could tell she was judging him again. He also noted that a butterfly was in his view, and as a still life painting. Somehow, time actually HAD stopped. "Fine then.... love.. uhh.. yes. Love me if you dare. But you know what?" He shrugged, "What?" "I was being evasive again. I am not entirely without the capacity to touch..." She made a shushing motion, finger to ruby lips, before he said anything. She raised her arms and cried in a voice that echoed as were they in a canyon... "Pluto Planet Power... make up!" And before him she stood, in a deep, almost black, green Sailor Scout outfit. She took a step to him; placed one hand on his cheek and the other firmly over his mouth. Then she kissed the back of her hand and he felt a thrill of emotion from her as she did so. She was kissing him as best she could; he understood immediately: "When you are a Sailor Scout yo do not transmit whatever it is about you that kills things." She nodded and looked at him joyfully, still tearing, then shook her head almost as quickly. "It is not as a Sailor Scout I stop oozing the poison.... it is that the Outfit somehow blocks it. Anywhere it does not cover me you still cannot touch me." She stepped another pace away from him, "Go home, Rei is expecting you." She tapped him on the forehead and just as suddenly she was gone.  
  
The butterfly continued it's flight to alight upon the windowsill of the coffee shop.  
  
Hurrying home, Kabal took his place in the shrine, and awaited Rei's arrival that they could commence their daily purification and discussion. She arrived, looking radiant as always in her Miko getup, and swished her sakaki wand about a bit as she prepared the rituals...  
  
Kabal panted heavily, and now that it was over, he much liked the feel of Rei's hair sopping wet against his chest. But he also made an effort not to mention the fact that her hair was VERY sweaty since to tell her so would cause her to move and would probably offend her greatly. Beautiful hair.. thick and lustrous to be sure, but also very good at insulating. "That was absolutely intense, Rei." he said, hating the sound of it. She laughed lightly, "I got that yes." she said. Kicking himself for having opened his mouth, he slid his arms about Rei and clutched her to him... lovingly, he realized. He also knew enough about women that he knew it was time for him to shut up and just enjoy the moment.  
  
It did not take her long to break the silence. "You've never done that before, have you?" she asked. "Nope, " Kabal said, "Thought about it plenty. Seen it in a couple of porn movies, but never actually DID it." "You certainly seemed to enjoy yourself." Rei said. "I can't believe you actually let me do that." he responded. Rei brought her arm back and patted his cheek, "It's no big deal 007. Stop feeling so damned guilty about everything." "That's the thing, " Kabal responded, "You're 14. Last night I took your virginity, and now... this." Rei wanted to turn in his arms to face him, but realized she was too weak to make the effort. "007, and at any point did you ever coerce me?" "No." he said. "And did you lie to me about anything, or mislead me in any way?" "Well," he said, thinking, "No." "And do you really think the spirit of Akane is going to lose much sleep over the fact that you're learning to move on?" Kabal was silent for a time and then said, "No, she always wanted only for my happiness, once she admitted it." "There you go then." Rei said. Kabal took a breath, and then actually began to laugh. "What?" Rei asked, trying not to laugh herself.. his laugh was infectious, full of unadulterated joy and she always found it hard to resist such sincere shows of emotion. "In fact, she's probably jealous of you for one thing." he said. "What?" she asked again. Kabal took a few breaths from under his mask before putting it back on the nightstand. "She's probably jealous that you got me to cut loose. She always complained that I was too... courteous... in the sack." "What's that mean?" rei asked, giggling now. "Well, I was so determined to be the opposite of what my mother critiqued pops about his tactics.. that I was, shall we say.. too considerate a lover?" Rei made a huffing sound, "007. I hardly think you need to use any euphemisms around me." Kabal nodded at that; no, indeed, he didn't. Nor did he think that was what the word 'euphemism' meant, but he did not comment on that. "I tended to think of her pleasure only, and she always told me I never seemed to be actually enjoying myself." Rei laughed again, "Something you should learn about women, Kabal-san... men are so afraid of being men... a lot of women are extremely happy if they are pleasing the one they love." Kabal furrowed his brow, then asked another question, "Yeah but what about you?" Rei flushed a bit, "If you must know, I did come. But it doesn't really matter... I'm not a man. I don't have an overriding need to orgasm every time I have sex. I'm just happy to give you love."  
  
Rei snuggled back into his arms once more, then rose up, in somewhat of a hurry to the bathroom. Kabal chuckled at that and, very tired, let his eyes close and sleep overtook him into a light doze.  
  
When his eyes opened again, Rei was sitting up next to him on the bed, towelling off her hair. "Hiya 007." she said when he moved to yawn. Bringing himself to focus, Kabal thought to broach a somewhat difficult subject. "Rei-chan?" he began. "Hmm?" she responded. "You know how my crystal glows all red when you're around? And we're uhh.. we're.. ah shit. Well, I love you, at least." "Yes?" Rei said, switching position of her legs to give her leverage to brush her hair. He had a clear on view right of... and stopped looking there. "Well, it did the same thing around Sailor Pluto. And in the space of only a couple of hours, we're... kinda.. have a thing going too." Rei looked unconcerned, "Actually I knew that you would...." she paused and looked at him, "Sailor Pluto? There's no Sailor Pluto."  
  
Serena's black cat bounded into the window behind Rei; and only seeing her, began to speak. "Rei! You've been ignoring your communicator! The 'scouts are in a lot of trouble and we need Sailor Mars right now!" Rei turned to look at Luna, revealing Kabal. "Uh err... meow?" Luna said. Kabal rolled up out of bed and began throwing his clothes on. "C'mon Rei; we have work to do." 


	7. Chapter 7: Home is where your friends a

Author's Note:  
  
Short Episode today, neh? Kinda neat how after a year of inactivity, I crank out the next chapter two nights later. Sorry it was so long.. but Chapter 6 was hard to write... it felt then.. and still feels now.. not good enough. But it was a hump I had to get over.  
  
Twisted Prophecy Chapter 7  
  
"We just want to dance here; someone stole the stage." 'We Built This City (On Rock and Roll)' - Jefferson Starship  
  
Kabal dashed down the streets of the Azabu-Juuban district of Tokyo. He was headed towards a holo-entertainment center called The Crown of Tokyo. Stupid name, but then he was told to go there by a talking cat. He was accompanied upon this errand by a Shinto Priestess who could change into a superhero and fling fire-based attacks at her enemies. That was no less stupid. But, all considered, this kind of chaos was not foreign to him. After all, he had grown up in the Nerima district himself... which to this day (over 80 years later) was STILL famous for weird occurances and ridiculous battles fought by equally ridiculous combatants. From what he saw in the paper, now lurking in Nerima was a band of roving women who protested Japan's all male government. Not a bad idea, considering they were in the majority; but the method they went about it was patently ridiculous. They would strip the men down and put them into women's clothes; then dip them in honey. Kabal did not get it. It was stupid. Life had once been ideal for him, tending to his land and family, then it was terrible for him... bloody, violent, in surroundings that seemed to have no good future. Now things were back to stupid. Full circle.  
  
As he passed a group of schoolgirls, he took noticed in lower peripheral vision that his crystal suddenly glowed a blazing brown color. Not pulsing, not throbbing, steady glow, and it almost seemed to pull towards them. He continued running and the light faded, the pull stopping as well. He'd check it out later.  
  
He approached within a block to the scene of battle to witness more "stupid". Indeed, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mercury were lying on the ground, entangled in some obviously incredibly sticky but undoubtedly harmless glue. Sailor Moon was posing at and threatening what appeared to be a bipedal, mutant human/black widow. However, it was pink, furry, it's fangs didn't look particularly sharp, and it was VERY female. It lacked nipples, but it was female. Behind it, obviously directing the attack, was a blonde woman in a semi-military outfit, demonic wings, sitting on a chair in the air that was not there. .Several steps closer, Kabal wondered exactly what his place in this battle would be. Should he puff out his chest and threaten the beastie while Sailor Moon finished whatever it was she was about to do?  
  
Instead, he pulled his pistol from it's hip holster and emptied the clip into the creature. The first two shots missed, causing the creature to turn towards him in shock. The third struck it just under the right cheekbone, shattering much of that side of it's face and leaving the jaw almost comically hanging. the rest of the bullets struck with wet thuds into the creature's thorax, blowing green guts and white insect blood all over the pavement. Continuing at his full run, he holstered the pistol and approached the woman sitting, looking quite stunned at him, in the air. Spreading his arms into the full Kenpo battle charge, he picked up the pace even more, closing the distance before the woman could react. His fist looped out and socked her square in the nose, with the driving force of his muscles and the speed of his dash behind it. She flew off her invisible perch and smashed into the metal wall 10 feet behind. The woman pried her left arm out of the dent her body made and felt her nose, which was bleeding quite freely.  
  
Kabal was mostly shocked that his blow had not outright killed her. The woman pulled herself out the rest of the way; still shocked looking, and she raised her hand and pointed it at him. Kabal could feel her Chi and anger gathering... and he allowed his body to go cold, to accept the anger and her energy. Finally he felt her gathering her attack into a coagulation... it was not any different from the energy blasts practiced by Herb. He knew exactly what to do about it. She launched the attack, and he waved his arms about in a circular motion, catching the tip of the stream in his own field of Chi. He danced with the stream of her energy for a few moments, spiraling inwards, then when the energy peaked, his motion stopped and he swung his arm back around...  
  
"Hiryu-Shoten-Ha! Revised Horizontal Blast!"  
  
The Dragon's head formed about his fist as he began the words and as he completed, it lunged forwards as a real striking serpent, energy spiralling out behind it. His opponent was totally taken off guard, and she took the Dragon Hurricane right in the chest, driven back into the hole she had just pulled herself out of. She screamed out in pain, and Kabal pressed the attack. "I don't know who the fuck you work for, but tell them this: The Sailor Scouts aren't fucking around anymore. We've had enough of your shit. It ends NOW!" With his last word, screamed of the anger absorbed from his opponent, caused one final burst of energy to pound into her; slumping her to the ground. He turned around to see Tuxedo Mask standing behind him; a rose in his hand, and a stunned look on his face. "See? That's how you do it!" And passed dead out on the concrete, his body crumpling as if he had no bones at all.  
  
Rose pulled herself up off the ground again, feeling severely weakened. And also wondered why she thought of herself as Rose all the sudden. And who was that man? She... knew him. Well, whoever he was, he had put up a fight the likes of which she had not seen in thousands of... but she was only 22? She shook it off and came to a complete standing position. She must have made some noise, because Tuxedo Mask whirled on her and appeared ready to throw his rose. Rose... Azurite.. yes, that was her name... shook her head rapidly, as much a negation of anything Tuxedo Mask was about to do as an attempt to clear her own head. "No. I'm done for now. You've won the day. Tell that guy he won't catch me off guard like that again." With that she snapped her fingers and was gone.  
  
Serena finally dropped her arms from her Sailor Moon pose. "Darien.... what...?" she said, stopping as she realized she had no idea what she was about to say. Lita was already up and around, and she placed one hand on Serena's shoulder. "Well hey it worked didn't it?" Serena turned towards the vanquished monster, and all at once smelled the sulfuric odor left by Kabal's pistol, intermingling with the sour milk smell that was coming from the vanquished monster. She looked at the monster's inside splayed across the pavement and say that it's arms were still twitching. There was no life in it's eyes but the body did not know it was dead yet. She fell to her knees, vomiting until her throat hurt. Tuxedo Mask approached her quickly and cradled her in his arms, shielding her form the mess with his cloak. "Would someone go check if Kabal is OK?" Ami looked almost as bad as Serena, and Rei was standing in the same spot she was when Kabal fired off the first shots. So Lita went over to check on him, saying "This isn't any more gross then those zombies we fought a coupla days ago." Darien made an affirmative grunt, then said, "No but somehow I think his actions just raised the ante and the Negaverse is about to get a lot more violent in pursuit of energy." "Or run like scared little bitches, " Lita shot over her shoulder, "I always thought we were taking it too easy with them anyway."  
  
Kabal's eyes opened and he slowly focused on the figure in front of him. For a few moments he saw her in some kind of breastplate... with Faerie wings to boot. She wore a demure crown of... no. It was just Lita. "You doin OK?" she asked. "Yes," he responded, "Just a bit tired." Lita turned from him and screamed, far too loudly for his still sensitive ears, "Yeah he's gonna live!" Tuxedo Mask, still clutching Serena, gave a thumbs up from the distance. Lita kneeled down Japanese style next to Kabal. She produced a pack of cigarettes from somewhere and tapped one out, lighting it up. "That was pretty fuckin cool." she said while exhaling her first puff. Kabal laughed lightly as he pulled himself over to a nearby telephone pole and leaned against it. He usually couldn't stand women who smoked, but when he saw her take the next puff, he immediately.... pushed that thought down. "Seriously," Lita said, "That was amazing. You come flyin down the street like a bat outta hell and all the sudden you're throwing out enough firepower to take on the whole Negaverse singlehandedly." "Yeah well, " Kabal said, "She used a sloppy attack and I turned it against her. Course as you can see it took just about everything I had. Even sloppy that woman is a powerhouse." Lita actually looked embarassed for a second, then reached out and... quite unlike the rest of her demeanor, placed her hand very gently on his knee. "Well.. uh.. I still thought it was-"  
  
Kabal rolled himself away from the spot he had been, as a wooden katana struck the area he had been sitting. He rolled up, muscles aching but taking his stance anyway. Looking his present opponent over, he couldn't honestly admit to being surprised at seeing him. "Saotome thou art TRULY a cad! What spell have you cast upon this-" Kabal placed his finger upon his opponent's forehead. "Kuno. Shut your damn mouth. I'm not in the mood." "What is this? Cursing in front of the virgin ears of-" Lita gave Kuno a very hard thump on the back, knocking him several steps forward and causing him to drop his Bokken. "And who the fuck are YOU?" she asked. Kabal rolled his eyes and took a step back as Kuno hastily retrieved his weapon and posed with it. "I am known to many as the Blue Thunder. Grace and speed, with the strength of a hundred lesser men, I am First Lieutenant Tatewake Kuno!. Age 21." Kabal actually was interested in that change of spiel. "You're an officer of some kind?" he asked. "Yes knave. Before reality was torn asunder from within my grip, the Colonial Marines saw that I am a natural-born leader of men." Kuno responded. "Ah," Kabal said, "So you came with Ryoga and Akane and all those people? Kuno lowered his blade, "No. A small contingent of us followed one of the lackeys of the adversary through a hole in the fabric of reality shortly after our mass defeat." His eyes snapped up and the blade pointed at Kabal again, "Defeat brought about by YOU, I might add!"  
  
Kabal had little patience for this. "I dunno what the fuck that guy did, but I'm not HIM." He slapped Kuno's blade down with contempt, "_I_ went through a similar opening. They're officially called 'Rifts', shortly after high-school ended. Akane was with me. I married her. We had a kid! I had nothing the fuck to do with whatever happened with you guys and the only Tatewake Kuno _I_ know in the first place is one who died in a car accident in his freshman year of college." Kuno digested this a moment appeared calm, then snapped the blade up again. "Then why were you interacting with that girl inappropriately if you are wed to Akane Tendo?" Kabal drew his boot knife in a flash and had it at Kuno's throat. "You are NOT worthy to so much as speak her name and don't you DARE imply that I would cheat upon my wife." He felt a surge of anger and suddenly could nto stop the rest from coming out, "Akane is DEAD now! And so is my son!" The knife faltered from Kuno's throat a bit, and he felt the rest surging up. Unable to stop the tide... why was he telling this to KUNO of all people? "I.. damnit I couldn't save her.." and then he knew why he was telling Kuno. Because Kuno knew and loved Akane also. He guessed Rei was right... he still needed to let some things go. "The beast came and I... I fought.... but he was too strong." He dropped to his knees, knfie clattering to the street as well. Rei was there instantly, taking his mask off, cradling his head in her bosom and stroking his hair. Kabal composed himself and turned to his rival, "So I wasn;t man enough ta save her. Never thought you'd hear me say that didya?" Kuno replaced his Bokken into it's sheathe.. and amazingly proved to be true to the principles he had merely pretended to espouse when Kabal knew a version of him. "There is no shame in defeat if the battle was fought with honor, and thou art no less a man for that you fought to your limits." A full minute of silence occured as Kabal looked upon Kuno with a dawning sense of respect. And also noted Kuno was speaking the local dialect of Japanese perfectly.  
  
"But i have also noted that two women here have showed affection to you Saotome. Do you intend to misguide all the women in town, enchanting them and leaving them in the dust?" Kabal's respect receded a bit. "Kuno," Kabal said, "In this world, the women outnumber the men nearly 10 to one, there's enough to go around so don't already start with all that jealousy bullshit." Kuno turned about and looked a bit.. happy, "Surely you jest Saotome. Such a situation could surely only exist in the afterlife if one earns it." A wry smile crossed Kabal's face, "Not shitting you Kuno. You're good looking, honorable man, go get laid. I can say with assurance you will have an easy time of romance." Kuno tilted his head, "Ah but for love to be true-" Kabal cut him off, "In fact, why don't you go to old Nerima?" he said, trying to hide the mischief in his voice, "look for a group of women that wear pink motorcycle jackets. They're out hunting for a traditional honorable man like yourself, probably as we speak." Kuno raised his hand to his forehead and posed dramatically again, "Then I, Tatewake Kuno, shall show them the true ways of a romantic!" as he turned and walked off, looking every bit like a Samurai from an old movie striding into the sunset. And also giggling somewhat maniacally.  
  
"Did you just send him to go after the Pink Ladies?" Tuxedo Mask asked. "Yes, that's exactly what I did." Tuxedo Mask could not help but laugh, "That's mean. They'll eat him for breakfast." "Yep." Kabal said, "Wouldn't have it any other way." As he pondered the even deeper level of stupidity his life had returned to. All he needed to complete the picture now was.... his heart became cold again. Why did he always get like that whenever he thought of his father?  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------  
  
Genma Saotome retracted his fist from the chest of the Renraku security robot. To his right Joshua Taylor gave him a thumbs up and plugged the 'deck he was carrying into the wall jack. Ryoga wandered into the room, looking releived that he didn't lose the rest of the group. They stood guard 5 feet from Joshua, Ryoga flipping one of the security cameras off. "Ryoga," Genma began, "Don;t mind me if I come fof sounding like a moron because this only seems to be happening to me, I asked Akane and Shampoo but nothing." "Yeah?" Ryoga asked, scanning the area and listening hard for approaching enemy. "You been gettign any... strange.. uhh dreams?" he asked. Ryoga nodded and said, "Well more like.." "Memories" Genma finished. Ryoga nodded, "I asked the girls about it too. Nothing of the sort happening to them." Genma sighed long and loud. "Are you remembering..." "Yeah." Ryoga said, "not much detail but i have vague idea of some major differences." "Yes." Genma said. "You think they happened to this Ranma?" Ryoga asked. Genma nodded grimly, "I've no doubt. An old scar I saw on his left arm matches somethign that.. was done.. in one of my memories." Ryoga gave him a sidelong glance, "Then how come he had nothing to say.. to either of us?" he asked. Genma sighed again, then shook with anger for a moment, "Probably doesn't remember. For my part, I'm only just learning it and I already want to forget." "Crap Ojisama, we were just kids, it's not THAT bad. I mean, pretty fucked up but not THAT bad." Genma thoguht for a moment and said, "Ah. Of course you wouldn't have had time to learn much. I took Ranma to China before you two had much time to talk." Ryoga turned entirely to face Genma now, "There's more to this than I'm remembering, isn't there?" "Yes," Genma said again, "But, frankly, if Ranma has forgotten about it, i'd rather we bring none of this up to him. So, not to be mean Ryoga... but you really don't need to know the rest." "I think I can guess." Ryoga said, looking disgusted. "You're probably on the right track, but... let;s just drop it, OK Ryoga?" Ryoga thought about that for a moment in silence before turning back to watch the hall, "OK. I guess it doesn't really matter, and I probably don't want to know anyway."  
  
Joshua came out of his trance and then pulled the jack out of he wall port. "Well guys, that's that. Tina Kurosawa is booked for a concert in old Nerima. Hope you all are ready to go home." "Why'd she drop the 'Ariana Saotome' name anyway?" Joshua laughed, "It was never any big secret anyway. And besides, don't you think she won't use the last name 'Saotome' ever again unless she's married to one?" "Point taken." Ryoga said. Genma chimed in, "Was it REALLY needed to go through all this crap just to contact a booker in Japan?" Joshua nodded, "Renraku is the only company that has any lines there. Now what say we se about getting the hell out of here?" Joshua asked as he flipped on the Smartlink for his HK- 227.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- 


	8. Episode 8: The first Crystal Knight!

"Funny how I find myself in love with you, If I could buy my reasoning, I'd pay to lose... One half won't do I've asked myself, how much do you commit yourself?"  
- 'It's my Life', Talk talk  
Kabal saw the talking cat was approaching the present scene again and sighed heavily. That cat seemed to be the consistent bearer of bad news, and he just didn't feel like dealing with more trouble right now. He felt along his belt and noted he still had 8 full clips of pulse rifle ammo and 4 for his pistol. He picked his blade back up and placed it back into it's boot sheath, and while still down retrieved the pistol he had earlier dropped. He ejected a round from it to clear any jams he may have caused upon dropping the weapon and looked up, prepared to hear what the little black terror wanted now.....  
  
And noticed almost immediately that he was in a different place. His mask lost all shading in the eyes rapidly, as he was now in a very dark environment. He dropped to a combat crouch and slammed himself against the nearest wall, eyes darting nervously about and pulse rifle twitching like a divining rod in whatever direction he looked. After he made a quick visual sweep of the area and found it to be clean, save for an amazing overabundance of cave spiders. He then slid up from his crouch and began to walk forward, still keeping close to the wall. He paused a moment and took out his Pocket Secretary to maybe see if it could tell him where he was. Sure enough, the "no signal" light was blinking. So he was either too far underground or WAY far away from home. Cursing under his breath, he ventured forward again. After four cautious steps, he felt the crystal beneath his shirt pull almost imperceptibly forward and to the right on it's chain. He paused long enough to pull his shirt open a bit and look down at it. The crystal was keeping up a steady.... glow? It seemed to be emanating inky blackness like it were colored light. Kabal abandoned caution somewhat and quickened his pace, keeping to the right wall and turning that way at any intersection he found. After some time, he stopped.. as he heard more than the echo of his own footfalls now, and the crystal was pulling strongly now. He heard the sound of male voices laughing, and a female voice giving orders in a language he did not know. He picked up his pace to a silent jog.  
  
"Huertar phor lueth kku jalukul, Tlu xunor xuil ol t'yin elgg ilta." commanded the female voice as Kabal happened upon the scene. The people he saw had ridiculously long, pointy ears, black skin, and mostly white hair. There was a pair of females standing 5 feet in front of where Kabal crouched (approaching while taking this all in, slowly) Two males of the same race stood nearby with bloody instruments blunt and sharp, while a third one was in the process of raping another female. Her face had many purple bruises, blood... also purple.. was streaming from her nose. She had many cuts on her naked body, in addition to contused spots hit hard enough to make the flesh split. She appeared younger than the others involved in this... scene.. and she looked pained and terrified, obviously past the point where she would consider death a blessing. Kabal grinned wryly as he momentarily reflected that Death would, indeed, be coming shortly now... just not for her.  
  
Kabal was also somewhat glad that they were all making so much noise, because stealth was never one of his strong points. As he rose up behind the females who seemed to be in charge of this, he prepared to show this group what WAS his strong point. The girl Drow... for even Kabal knew what these were... rolled her eyes over to see him rising up behind the women. She opened her mouth to speak something, but Kabal never did find out what it was to be, because the male raping her smashed his fist into her mouth and screamed, "Zu'tour phor elg'caress!" Kabal shifted the pulse rifle to his back and reached his hands toward the women, then seized them both by the hair. One of them started to react when he smashed their heads together. The woman on Kabal's left started to collapse.. but Kabal did not let her fall. He pulled their heads about two feet apart and then smashed them together. Then repeated. Again. Finally, the skull of the woman on the right cracked open with a hollow wet sound, and he dropped her. The one on the left was dropped by Kabal who then stomped with all his might on her neck.  
  
Kabal lunged forward, intent on pulling the rapist off the girl, but was stopped short by a heavy blow to the head that drove him back a step. The Drow on the left advanced upon Kabal, club held high; the other male was a step behind. The one who was on the girl stopped what he was doing and began to gather himself to join his compatriots. Kabal shook his head clear just short of in time to stop another blow. This one landed upon his shoulder, and he felt a fierce thrill of pain from that arm. He retaliated by kicking the Drow in the knee, knocking him over. The second swung a sword at Kabal, which he barely managed to dodge his throat back from. Kabal raised his leg and drew his knife, unsure how to attack this situation. The third male drew his own blade as the first rose up unsteadily. Outnumbered by opponents whom were apparently VERY fast and rather talented, Kabal felt much frustration. He took three more steps back, trying to decide what now. Then it came to him. He jammed his knife into the wall and continued stepping backwards. The drow continued to approach him, though at a somewhat slower pace... they were unsure what their opponent was about to do. Kabal, however, was not. He shrugged the pulse rifle down into his hands and opened fire.  
  
Male one and two were shot in the torso several times and slumped down, while the third jumped away from the spray fast enough to be untouched. The drow touched ground and hit it running... he ran off into a dark corner... which Kabal watched with interest as blinked his eyes twice rapidly, then three more times slowly. The mask switched to light enhancement. He made motions with his head that indicated he was "searching the area" but kept his eyes directly on the opponent. The Drow male had removed a throwing knife and was walking further away in the shadows... he ran the thin blade along the wall, collecting some of the slime from the walls onto it. Kabal adjusted slightly to keep an eye on the Drow.. and when it reached a reasonably safe distance from the Drow girl.... he brought the rifle up to eye level and fired. The Drow was, indeed, deadly fast, he dodged around the projectile. The grenade, however, exploded upon hitting the wall behind him, knocking him over forwards. As soon as he hit the ground Kabal fired a burst into him.. one bullet of which took the Drow in the neck.  
  
Kabal sighed tiredly... he couldn't keep up all this activity for too much longer. He turned towards the girl and looked at her more closely as he blinked away the light enhancement. Now that she was sitting up she didn't look as young as he first thought. Her breasts were as small as he had initially thought... but so was she. Overall her shape seemed to place her in the early to mid teens. He started to take inventory of her injuries; and saw that the one that was the gravest was probably her... womanhood .. it looked torn and battered and there were had obviously been things other than male Drow members placed in there. She was bleeding at a rate he found somewhat alarming. He approached her to get a closer look at the damage, and made it two steps. The girl cried out in fear and picked up a blade warily. She was watching his pulse rifle. He, too looked at it, and said, "Oh no.... no.. this isn't for you.." She blinked at him. 'Of course, idiot,' he thought, 'she won't speak your language.'  
  
Kabal placed the pulse rifle down slowly and took two steps to the left, moving slowly and trying to indicate that he meant no harm. "He spoke soothingly, "Look, I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm not like.... those sick bastards..." she showed no indication of relaxing, so he continued as he slowly moved forward... keeping his eye on the dagger she had. "I won't hurt you.. I'm here to help you. Hey.." he stopped and looked between her bosoms. She had a crystal that looked almost identical to his. "I'm gonna show you something." He slowly reached under his shirt and pulled his own crystal. It was "blazing" black, and as soon as he took away his hand and let it hang, her crystal reacted as well. It pulsed a deep blue.... then both stopped reacting at all. The girl looked down at her own crystal in confusion. Kabal moved closer, "I just wanna help you... gotta look at those wounds you got there." Her eyes looked back up at him, and he continued, "I just want to help you. You're... heh, you're very pretty, do you know that?" As he said that, he took a rapid step to her, and she screamed out in fear, closed her eyes, and slashed the dagger sloppily at him. He caught it by the handle and removed it from her grip. Her eyes snapped back open and she stared intently at him. Kabal spread his arms outwards in a gesture of... what, he didn't know. He then reversed the dagger and held it out to her, handle first. She looked at him for a few moments, then reached out to snatch it from his grasp as quickly as she could. He did not react at all to that, only kept his arms out. The cave seemed even more silent then before a moment as she looked him over, considering a hundred things at once. Something finally won out, and she lurched forward..... dropping the dagger, and knocking Kabal into a sitting position. There she clung to him, wracking sobs shaking her whole body. Kabal held her for a while, stroking her hair and whispering encouragingly to her. He was also grateful for the chance to rest; and closed his eyes, intending only to rest a few moments...  
  
When Kabal his eyes opened again, the cave was somewhat brighter. The moss on the walls were the source of that, he quickly ascertained. The Drow girl was curled up almost in a ball, head nestled on his chest. He reached out and brushed her forehead with his hand to awaken her. Her eyes snapped open instantly, and then went out of focus a bit. Kabal was confused for a moment, and then cursed himself aloud for falling asleep. He had done nothing to clean and dress her wounds; he was lucky she was still alive at all. Kabal disengaged himself from her grasp and lay her up against the wall. She blinked at him blearily, but did not protest. Kabal searched through the pockets of his jacket until he located a few items that would be of use... penlight, Bactine spray, and canteen of Bacardi 151.  
  
He first went to examine the biggest problem wound... he knelt in front of her and began to examine her vaginal area. The labia were torn and the one labia was actually burned. The bottom of the area was torn beyond, and Kabal wished he had something he could stitch that with. The rest was undamaged. Kabal looked up apologetically at her and then spread the labia. Within, he found that a large gash was running up the right side, fairly deep. He shined the light in and followed deeper, finding that a piece of metal, probably used for the initial cutting was still in there. Probably made the intercourse even more painful for her then it would have been otherwise. That would have to come out. Other than that there was no damage save for friction abrasions. Kabal was no doctor, but he figured she would live provided he could disinfect the wounds. Kabal stood up and offered the flask to the Drow girl. She reached out to take it and unscrewed the cap. She sniffed the contents and the canteen fumbled out of her grasp. Kabal easily plucked it out of the air and handed it to her again. She looked at him, and he made drinking motions. She stared harder, and he said, "Look it tastes like shit but it'll help. You're about to REALLY hurt."  
  
The tone of his voice must have convinced her, because she pinched her nose shut and took two long swallows. Kabal saw her wince, but it looked like she'd keep it down. Satisfied in that, he went searching for his knife. Surely, it was still in the wall where he left it. With a slight rasping sound, he pulled it free of the lodged spot and walked back to the Drow girl. She was coughing a bit and seemed happy to give over the canteen when he extended his hand to it. Then he offered his knife to her. She tilted her head questioningly. Kabal lifted his mask and demonstrated what he wanted her to do by placing the handle in his mouth and biting down on the Duraplast grip. He then offered it to her, and could see the full light of recognition in here eyes. She added two and two together, came up with 4, and realized what Kabal was bracing her for. She clenched it between her teeth and spread her legs open wider for him.  
  
Kabal had to move slowly so as not to damage her insides any worse than they already were, working out the metal... it was barbed, making his job even harder. He could see the Drow girl's legs tensing and hear her breathing coming hard, but she did not scream. He reminded himself to compliment her on that when he found someone who could speak a language they had in common. "Allright..." an image flitted across his mind, "Butterfly.. " he said, "Now this is gonna be the last pull. It'll hurt, and I'm actually gonna drag it along the rest of the wound to reopen it to be disinfected. Please don't hate me, huh?" He looked up to see her sweating and in agony, and to make it clear what he was going to do, he made an exaggerated motion of gearing up for a hard pull. She nodded at him and squeezed her eyes shut. And so Kabal held it at an angle to minimize tissue damage, and yanked it out. He immediately re-applied some pressure and brought the barb down, re-opening the entry wound. Not a lot of blood came out.... Kabal was not sure if that was good or bad. He threw the metal object behind him and proceeded to douse the entire area with Bactine. He also used his fingers to open up any other areas he feared might be deep, and sprayed Bactine into there as well. The Drow girl's head was thrown back and she was letting out a cry of pain that could be heard even through the gagging of the handle.  
  
And then it was over. Kabal pulled himself up to lay next to the Drow girl, and took his knife from her mouth. He looked at the teeth marks she had made in it and was pretty impressed. Duraplast was hard stuff to dent. He sheathed the knife and regarded the girl, who was still breathing quite heavily. She used her own arm to wipe away her tears of pain, and looked at him thankfully. "Hangin in there all right?" he asked. She looked at him blankly. Kabal pointed at his chest and said "Kabal. My name is Kabal." Her expression changed somewhat, and he repeated the process, adding his last name to it. After a few times, she nodded at him. He pointed at her and asked "What is your name?" She seemed to comprehend, but just shook her head. "Great." he said, "I'm stuck in who the hell knows where with a Drow who doesn't speak my language, and is probably mute also. This sucks." Perhaps detecting something in the tone of his voice, she looked at him questioningly. "Butterfly, " he said, "I don't know where we are, or what to do now. But... don't worry about it. I'll think of something."  
  
As he stood up to look around, he immediately ended up wincing and cursing his luck. The soothing thump of his motion detector was now beeping with increasing volume... indicating to him they were no longer alone. Kabal turned towards the cave entrances and saw there were two of them. The lovely sensor device indicated motion in both directions. He sighed the sigh of the damned and picked his pulse rifle back up. "We got company, Butterfly." He spotted the first on the ceiling of the left tunnel... it appeared to be a male Drow with the lower half of a... Drider. that was called a Drider he reminded himself. He easily blasted it away with a hail of bullets and checked his motion detector again. He then stopped to stare at it for a few seconds. The counter detected 200 distinct signals, and the readout informed him there were more that it could not track. Cursing more, and this time not at all under his breath, he stepped back as far as he could and readied himself for combat. He quickly felt detached from the situation  
  
The assorted Drow and Drider came in waves, grouping for attacks and re-grouping after being repelled. Kabal steadily backpedaled, widening his area of attack while minimizing direct exposure to either opening. He fought coldly, searching for targets and opening fire mechanically in small bursts, eliminating one target and moving to the next rapidly. He made a point of going after the spell-casting ones first.. they dressed rather obviously. Kabal began to sweat a bit as he realized his pulse rifle was clicking on empty and had to switch to his pistol. Down to the last clip on that, the fighting seemed to cease. It actually took him a few seconds to come out of "holding off an entire horde single-handed" mode to realize that one of the Drow was speaking to him.  
  
"Ye got some amazing magic there laddie, but eventually it'll run out." a male voice said. "Yeah?" Kabal asked, "What's your point?" He also wanted to punch himself in the head because he had just confirmed to his opponents that he would run out of ammo. The niche they were in was very easily defendable with gunfire given the choke-point angling of the tunnels, but hand to hand would prove a lot harder. "There's hundreds more of us here. We will eventually overcome ye, I assure ye that outsider." Kabal holstered the pistol and began to stretch, dropping into the splits to limber up. "You're welcome to try. I can assure you that it won't be easy." "Aye but it KIN be easy, " the voice said, "All we want is fer ye tae leave these caves. An leave the girl behind." Kabal turned back to the girl, "You got any input on this, Butterfly?" The Drow just stared blankly at him. Kabal turned back and pitched his voice as loud and as deep as her could, projecting his supreme confidence. "You'll not have her! I will die first! Come and get her if you want her!" The girl behind him tilted her head, confused, and looked upon Kabal as if seeing him for the first time.  
  
Feeling the negative Ki of the enemy, Kabal drove his index finger down into the ground screaming "Bakusai Tenketsu!" and the first Drow around the corner took rock shards in the face, one lodging in his left eye and dropping him immediately. A few moments later, a second came, female, bearing twin swords. She swung the one in her left hand at him, which he ducked under. He shifted his weight nimbly and kicked her with all his might to the crotch from his low position. Her pubic bone snapped and she crumpled. Still down, Kabal sweep-kicked the third. At this point, the Drow began coming in greater numbers. He nailed two with twin backhand punches, and forward kicked a third, breaking her sternum. He turned quickly to the left as he felt an attack from that direction. It was a smallish Drow bearing a dagger. Kabal lashed his hand out in a tiger claw strike, raking across the eyes of another as the dagger-bearer swung. Kabal spun after the claw strike, and caught the Drow's dagger with his off hand. The other came across and punched the dagger-wielder's wrist. he caught the knife as it was released, reversed the direction of his spin, and high roundhouse kicked him, causing the skull to become dented and the Drow to drop unconscious. A Drider was closest next, and Kabal screamed "Tenshin Amaguriken, revised! Dagger attack!" His left hand struck with a blur, perforating the Drider with over 20 holes in it's torso. Then he sprang back from the group.  
  
And noticed he had nothing left. The day's activities had been too much for him. Thanks to years of training he could keep going at full momentum till the end... but this was the end. There was no Ki left to draw from, and he was so tired it was everything he could do to continue standing. He glanced back to the girl as the horde approached. "I'm sorry Butterfly... But I don't think we're gonna make it." The girl closed her eyes and did not respond. Kabal turned back to face off the Drow.... who began retreating. They almost literally melted into the shadows in what appeared to be one mass. A glance at his motion detector confirmed this; they were leaving and in a BIG hurry.  
  
Kabal did not question it. He murmured a quick prayer of thanks to Amaterasu, and scooped the Drow girl up over his shoulder. He ran with her until he found an entrance aboveground. He only briefly paused there a moment to catch his breath, then took off again...  
  
As the sun began to send it's first tendrils of light over the land where they had camped, Kabal looked at the girl again, and found he was taking inventory of her features. Her face looked peaceful.. noble.. and dark.. all at the same time. Her form was toned enough, she apparently was a rather active girl. She was still pretty messed up from the beating she had received, but he could imagine she would be quite fetching when that cleared up. She turned away from him in her sleep and her blanket came with her, now exposing her bare legs to him. He looked at them contrasting against the green grass... then looked away. He got up, faced the sun, and began his morning katas.  
  
The Drow girl opened her eyes and watched his movements. After seeing his smooth movements for a few minutes.. almost like a dance... she got up and on a whim began to try to imitate his moves. Kabal felt her Ki the instant she began movements like his. He did not look at here but instead spoke. "This is the basic form of Szechuan Kenpo, which is the basis for the Anything Goes style. It focuses on hand to hand combat and ranged weapons. Later on you can learn to use other weapons as I can.. but that takes time and patience; for now let's start with some punches..." 


End file.
